True Sight

by Cold Spike

Chapter Five: Why Me?

As I walked slowly back to the clubhouse, I racked my brain to come up a workable plan to talk this out. I knew these ponies and what would please them individually in a conversation, but I didn’t know how to talk to all of them at once. It was just too much. I knew this was going to be awkward. Sweetie Belle knew it was going to be awkward, but she was willing to fight through it for the sake of her friends.

I wanted Sweetie Belle to be my friend, almost desperately so. For her part, she was terribly worried that her friends would reject her when they found out her special talent was the same as mine. Certainly the same talent would lead to the same despicable behavior, right? So, for the sake of our potential friendship, I would show the others that I actually could be bearable to be around. My plan was simple. I would do my best to ignore whatever came from her friend’s eyes as I tried to make friends with them. It was a terrible plan, and I knew it was doomed to fail, but I had to try.

I knocked on the clubhouse a few times and waited. Sweetie Belle opened the door. I thought she looked nervous, but without my Sight I couldn’t quite tell.

“Come in,” she replied, stepping aside. As I walked inside, all eyes were on me. They did not look happy.

“Sweetie Belle, why are we allowing this again?” Apple Bloom questioned, glaring at me.

I sighed as my plan started falling apart already. I couldn’t help but see all the outrage in her eyes. The fact that colts were not allowed in the clubhouse was just the tip of the iceberg. I felt myself start to bridle at all the animosity.

“Why don’t you tell my friends why you pulled me aside? Hmm?” Luckily, I didn’t need True Sight to recognize the pleading in Sweetie Belle’s eyes. She was begging me to play along and play nice. For her, I reigned in my temper.

“Uh, right. First off, I’d like to apologize for-”

“You’re darn right you’re gonna apologize!” Apple Bloom interrupted. I had seen it coming, of course, but had played dumb and allowed her to do it. It seemed to make her feel a little better to score a point on me, I noticed. If I could just get into the habit of ignoring my True Sight, then maybe this could work.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I was never going to reveal any secrets or anything like that,” I finished, and saw mixed reactions. Apple Bloom tilted her head quizzically. Sweetie Belle smiled. Scootaloo was not buying it in the slightest and was still afraid that I would tell Apple Bloom about her living in the clubhouse. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon scoffed in unison before the former spoke up.

“Then why even do it? What did you have to talk to her about anyway?” She narrowed her eyes and waited.

Sweetie Belle spoke up before I could even glance at her for guidance. I had to hand it to her; she was smart. If her friends noticed us coaching each other, they might add conspiracy on top of all the other wild guesses about me running through their minds.

“He just wants friends. He singled me out at random and wouldn’t admit it in front of all of you. So I told him, fine, but he had to admit to it or it wouldn’t make any sense,” Sweetie Belle finished.

“You didn’t seem that interested in becoming friends before,” Scootaloo replied, with just a hint of bitterness in her voice.

“That was before I...” I gritted my teeth with my mouth closed so they wouldn’t notice, “...realized how much of a jerk I was being.” I was hoping that by admitting a mistake, they might sympathize. As expected, I got a uniform result from everypony but Sweetie Belle: they demanded satisfaction but were not sure how. I waited for one of them to give voice to the group opinion.

“Well, okay, but we still don’t trust ya. No offense…” Apple Bloom practically muttered, but we all heard it. I didn’t care, but Sweetie Belle did. I saw her flinch.

“How can I get you to trust me?”

I could tell that Sweetie Belle wanted to scream that she trusts me, but she thought better of it. Again, I had to give her credit. The easy way out of this situation would do her no favors. They needed to see that ponies with True Sight could be trusted.

Apple Bloom pondered this for all of five seconds before yelling out, “Cutie Mark Crusaders, huddle!” In an instant, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo huddled up with her. They then saw Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara giving them quizzical looks. “That means you huddle up with us, like this!”

“Oh,” they both replied and reluctantly huddled in.

Rather than feeling shunned, I actually enjoyed myself for a moment. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, and I was completely in the dark. Nice! Very quickly, however, Scootaloo broke the huddle and looked toward me with her eyes closed. Apparently she was finally figuring out this whole True Sight thing.

“We want to know something embarrassing about you,” Scootaloo said.

“What?!”

“You do know everything about each one of us, right?”

“I do.”

“We figure it would make it even, or at least closer, if we knew something big about you, something secret and embarrassing.”

“Oh.”

Well, that complicated things. Was there anything embarrassing about me? I thought back to the last couple of years while I had True Sight and nothing came to mind. Then I thought back to before that and plenty of things came to mind. I couldn’t exactly be sure of what kind of secret they wanted, especially with Scootaloo’s eyes closed, but it had to be good to make it fair.

Bed wetting? Nah, two of them have done that before. Getting bullied? No, that’s still a raw and painful topic for this group. What about... Oh Celestia, not that. I know it would work, but, please, not that.

“Do I have to?”

“If you want to be part of the club,” Scootaloo said.

I looked over to Sweetie Belle, and as soon as she met my gaze she nodded her head furiously with a grin on her face. She looked around and saw the other fillies in the room had their eyes locked on me, so she mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

I sighed.

“Alright,” I began, and the fillies all stepped closer in anticipation of juicy knowledge. “When I was young, before I got my cutie mark… I once asked my teacher out.”

“On a date?!” Sweetie Belle practically squealed.

“…Yeah…” I admitted ashamedly. I had been young and stupid and, to be honest, I had seen nothing wrong with what I was doing. Why would I?

“Well, go on. We wanna know how it played out!” Scootaloo urged. They all had grins on their faces.

“Oh, alright. It was Hearts n’ Hooves day, and all of the kids were exchanging cards for fun, you know, with candy in them and stuff...” I started slowly. They leaned in closer, their smiles growing wider by the second, which was not making this any easier.

“And?” Scootaloo pressed.

“I had a professional card made with help from my mom-” I paused when Scootaloo couldn’t help but snicker. “And when everypony was opening their candy, I walked up to the teacher. She was working on our assignments or something at her desk. I gave her the card with a big grin on my face, and she read it...”

“What did it say?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I really don’t remember, sorry,” I replied honestly. Thankfully they did not press the issue.

“And what did your teacher say?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Hmm. ‘Thank you for the thought’ or somesuch when I gave her the card, and then, hmm, what did she say?” I wracked my brain until the really embarrassing memories began to flow. “Oh, right. I think she pitied me or something because when she finished reading, she said, ‘I would love to!’ We ended up going out on a date at a pizza place...” I sucked in a huge breath to steel myself, “...with my mother coming along,” I admitted with a whoosh.

It took fully four minutes for the fits of giggles to die down. Scootaloo actually had tears in her eyes. I let out a nervous chuckle and waited.

“That was so funny!” Scootaloo gritted her teeth to stop from laughing.

“Okay,” I said and paused for a moment. “Can we all be friends now?”

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Again, it was Scootaloo who first spoke up, which I found funny. The group didn’t really seem to have a set leader, but Scootaloo always thought she was. She did live in the freakin’ clubhouse, so I found it fair.

“You have to join our club to be our friends.” She looked at me eagerly, and her eyes unintentionally revealed everything: her goal, her plan, her hopes, her readied arguments. It would be so easy to just skip this conversation! To win their trust, however, I would have to do my best to play along as if I didn’t already know all of this. I started with the obvious.

“But I already have a cutie mark.”

“So do they,” she pointed to the former bullies. “This club is about helping each other find our special talents, not just our cutie marks. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon aren’t all that happy with their marks, so they joined up. I suspect you aren’t either?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” I said dryly.

“C’mon!” Sweetie Belle chimed in. “Join the club! Who knows, maybe you can find another special talent? Something relating to a job or something?!”

I turned my head towards her, and for a moment I could almost see into her thoughts like my True Sight was working. It became clear to me that she was nervous about getting True Sight for multiple reasons. Besides worrying about her friends, she must also be worried about how a special talent like True Sight could be used to get a job and earn a living. It was true that I never worried about that because of my inheritance from my father, but for Sweetie Belle things might be different. I suspected she was hoping to get another special talent on top of True Sight and was using me as a test to see if that would work.

“Sure, but how do I join?” I asked, turning back to Scootaloo. I really tried my best to not peek into her thoughts again, but it didn’t matter. She was feeling lazy and decided to skip the initiation.

“You’re in; we can get you a cape later. We already wasted enough time with all of this. Now we need some plans for how to find our special talents!” For a moment she had considered making me go through the pointless ritual with the drums, but she had finally thought better of it. I approved the omission wholeheartedly.

“Right,” Sweetie Belle started. “Anypony have any ideas?”

I had to resist the urge to laugh out loud as we all actually went silent and began to ponder our future crusades. Scootaloo’s talent was as a stunts pony similar to the Wonderbolts, only focused more on amazing precision and finesse with props rather than high speed aerial acrobatics. Apple Bloom’s talent involved construction, which was actually pretty special. She could build almost anything, even a full blown castle if she planned it out. Diamond Tiara was a leader who was having troubles accepting her role in life. Silver Spoon was an assistant who was having the same issue. I felt the two former bullies needed something to keep their mind off of that. I figured they would eventually accept their fates, which I didn’t think seemed too bad.

“What kind of crusades have you all tried before?” I asked, knowing full well that they had tried almost everything but what their talents actually were.

“Skydiving, foraging, monster slaying, fishing, animal caretaking, foalsitting, uh, and a bunch of other things,” Scootaloo replied, ticking each item off on her hoof.

“Have you tried construction?” I asked, after a long silence. They all shared looks. Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes at me, and I smirked. “You know, building floats or forts, fixing up old shacks or cottages, making a go cart or a piece of furniture, or anything like that…”

“That’s a great idea!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

“It is?” Scootaloo replied dryly.

“Got any better ideas?”

“No, but where are we going to find a cottage or shack to fix up?”

“Why did you just automatically go with fixing a cottage? You could make a dresser or something smaller,” I asked, perplexed. Her thoughts shifted so quickly that I got no read on her.

“Duh. Furniture sounds so boring! Fixing up a house or something at least sounds more interesting.”

“Well, I live in a rundown cottage. You could all try to fix my place up, I guess.” All of them beamed and jumped in the air as they cheered. “But, no half-hearted or rushed work, and no fighting with each other with the tools.”

“Okay!” they all said together.

“Right. Apple Bloom, do you think your sister might have some tools we can borrow?” I hoped that by phrasing it as a question she would not realize I was using True Sight, and I was right. She nodded and dashed off in a hurry. Pretty soon she had returned with a large assortment of tools. “So, I guess we’re all set to fix up my cottage?”

“Yeah!” they all screamed in unison. I noticed that Silver and Tiara were less enthusiastic than the others, but they were still happy to be included instead of just watching jealously from the sidelines for once.

“And now I’m deaf!” I exclaimed, just before being smacked in the back of the head by Sweetie Belle. The others all giggled. So far, so good. Now to walk to my cottage. As I led the way, I did my best to not catch their eyes and merely listened to their conversations.

“You really live out here?” Sweetie Belle asked. She and the other Crusaders were looking all around and had noticed the quiet of the woods. It was no dark and spooky Everfree Forest, but it was certainly not as inviting as they were used to.

“Yeah. Too quiet?” I asked, trying to make casual conversation.

“Maybe a little…” Apple Bloom muttered. I knew that she was used to constantly being around her family on a busy farm, so it made sense that she would feel out of place here. I don’t think any of them were really afraid, though, especially not Scootaloo.

“So, who knows the most about construction?” Diamond Tiara asked the group five minutes into our little journey. A quick glance back at the rest of the Crusaders to gauge their reaction incidentally told me that this path was used for the Running of the Leaves.

I wanted to speak up so badly, but I shrugged and just kept on walking.

“Hey!” Sweetie Belle said after a long awkward silence. “Apple Bloom, you fixed up the clubhouse. You gotta know something about fixing up a cottage, right?”

“Well, sure Ah do, Ah guess….” She muttered the last part. I smirked. I suspected that Apple Bloom already knew of her talent. I say suspected because, while I do get more than enough memories from other ponies, I don’t always get everything. If a memory is being suppressed or if the pony is trying not to think about something for long enough, then it becomes hazy. Her muttering and suppressed feelings made me suspect that Apple Bloom might not want to be a construction pony and had been trying not to think about what she feared her talent to be. It made me feel weird, but I kept it to myself.

“Here we are!” I gestured to my crap cottage. It wasn’t terrible in my opinion, but I’ve seen the cottage that Fluttershy owns in the memories of Twilight and the Crusaders, and my cottage was certainly not like hers.

“You live in this crap shack?” Scootaloo asked, studying my home. The others gasped at hearing Scootaloo cuss. I snickered.

“Oh, relax. There aren’t any adults here. Crap, damn—say whatever you want! And, yeah, I do live here. I know it’s not paradise, but it’s certainly quiet when I need it to be.”

“Well, this is gonna take some work…” Apple Bloom muttered once more and began to circle my cottage a few times as her mind went into overdrive. “Okay, Scootaloo, you grab the paint brush and the paint cans.”

“On it!” She saluted and did just that.

“Sweetie Belle, you’re going to use that small magic you learned to light the interiors while I go inside and work there.”

“Um, okay!” Huh. You learn something new every day. I guess Sweetie Belle has a little magic? Not that she had been using any around me.

Apple Bloom then tried to enter my cottage a few times and failed miserably. I explained about my magical locks and officially invited them all inside. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon looked horrified at the thought of anypony living in such a dreary place. Meh, I’ve seen worse.

Apple Bloom began to give orders to the others. The Cutie Mark Crusaders worked well as a team, and before long they actually got some real work done at my place. Apple Bloom admitted that her talent had limits and thus she could not build me all the things she wanted to, but she did whip up a few pieces of furniture that seemed to come out of nowhere. I almost wondered if she was secretly somehow related to Pinkie Pie. The weird thing was, despite all the use of her special talent, her cutie mark was not showing up.

This was another thing about cutie marks. A pony could resist them. Apple Bloom’s mark could be holding back because conditions were not yet perfect, or maybe she was consciously resisting her destiny, but most likely something in her subconscious could not accept having a construction cutie mark and was preventing its appearance. A few times my True Sight showed me her mark start to appear and then fade away, though to normal eyes her flank remained immutably blank. I wasn’t exactly sure how True Sight did this, but it seemed to try to project the truth about a pony even if physical appearances differed. Clearly, Apple Bloom’s mark was trying to appear but was being blocked. I had to talk to her, because the longer she put this off, the more deeply hurt she was going be when the inevitable finally happened.

I glanced around behind me and saw everypony else was working outside for the moment, so I seized the opportunity.

“Apple Bloom?”

“Hmm?” she mumbled, not looking away from her examination of one of my walls.

“…I know what your special talent is,” I finally said. She flinched badly, but kept examining the wall. When she made no further response, I continued. “I think you know, too. True Sight tells me a lot of things, but for some reason I can’t get the best read on your feelings towards your talent. So, oddly enough, I’m just guessing at this point. However, I think you’re scared of a future with a mark that has nothing to do with apples, because of your sister.”

Apple Bloom’s ears slumped down and she hung her head. She wasn’t looking at the wall or at the floor or at anything at all.

“I can tell you that not getting an apple cutie mark is not the end of the world, and I can tell you, with confidence, that your sister loves you and always will. You’re resisting your mark because you’re afraid of change and because you’re afraid of getting kicked out of your family.” I stopped talking and walked up to her. I was about to hug her, but thought better of it and instead just placed my hoof on her shoulder. She looked up.

“So that’s it? Ah’ll be the first Apple in the family to not get an apple cutie mark, and my big sis won’t hate me? Is that what you’re saying?!” Her yell could be heard all the way outside, but I didn’t care.

“Yep, that’s what I’m saying. You can look down now,” I replied with a smile.

“What are you…? Aahh!” She gasped as she looked down and to her horror found a cutie mark gracing her flank. It had a hammer and a screwdriver crossed in an X shape, but no apple.

For a while, neither of us said anything. I watched her eyes, waiting for her shock to wear off. The others soon came inside to see what the commotion was about. They watched us cautiously, trying to figure out what was happening. They didn’t seem to notice the change on Apple Bloom’s flank. Joy warred with insecurity on Apple Bloom’s face as the reality of her long awaited new cutie mark slowly sank in.

“Are ya sure about my sister?” she asked quietly.

“Positive. Congrats on your new cutie mark.”

In an instant, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo ran up and cheered for their friend. They jumped up and down and hugged her for all they were worth. I glanced back and saw Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara clapping for her. Sweetie Belle glanced at me and smiled, mouthing “I told you so.” I couldn’t help but smile back. Apple Bloom had happy tears in her eyes as she turned back to me.

“Are ya absolutel-”

“Yes, damn it! Now go tell Applejack before we drag you there!”

“I think I’m definitely gonna come to your cottage when I want to cuss,” Scootaloo murmured, giggling to herself.

Work on my cottage was clearly done for the day. Overall, my cottage did look slightly better. It was pretty big and, for work from a bunch of fillies, it wasn’t half bad. We immediately ran out of the forest towards Sweet Apple Acres. The fillies were screaming for Applejack the whole way, while I simply followed in bemused silence. Applejack eventually found us, running towards us from where she had been working in the orchard.

“Sis! Ah got my cutie mark!”

“Ya did now? So that’s what y’all were screaming about! Well, let me see then! What’s this?” Applejack asked while examining the mark. Despite my earlier assurances, I could see the lingering traces of doubt flare up brightly in Apple Bloom’s mind. “Well, congrats little sis! We’ll have to celebrate!”

“So you’re not upset that there’s no apple?” she finally asked. I face hoofed, already knowing the answer.

“Course not! You’re still an Apple, ain’t ya?”

“Course! Veritas told me you would never be mad, but Ah was still worried.”

“Veritas?” She looked around before spotting me. “Oh, it’s you. Enjoy them apples you bought?”

“Yes, ma’am. They were delicious.”

“Glad to hear it. I’ll make sure to invite ya to the party I need to make Pinkie plan,” Applejack said thoughtfully and strolled off with Apple Bloom. The other fillies remained there and stared at me. Sweetie Belle broke the silence.

“I told you, he’s just a regular pony who wants friends. See?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome to the club,” Scootaloo spoke, this time with no bitterness.

“Uh, thanks. It’s getting late though.”

“Yes. Daddy will be quite upset if I’m out too long, plus I have dirt in my mane…”

“Me too!” Silver Spoon replied, practically in unison.

They soon left, leaving behind two fillies and myself.

“I guess we’d better get home.... That’s weird.” Sweetie Belle was now looking into Scootaloo’s eyes, and I knew that look. She shook her head a few times, but then something odd happened. Her horn started to glow. It was subtle at first, but the more she stared into Scootaloo’s eyes, the brighter it glowed. After a minute, Sweetie Belle’s eyes were glowing a bright white, and Scootaloo and I were too transfixed to look away. Another minute passed in silence, before her horn stopped glowing and her eyes turned back to normal. We all shared a confused look before Scootaloo gasped and looked down at Sweetie Belle’s flank.

On her flank was a new cutie mark as well: an open door with a giant eyeball in the middle. It was very similar to mine, and yet something told me it was way different. That door had to mean something.

“Surprise?” I finally said

Scootaloo continued gawking. Her first few attempts at forming words failed, until she finally spat out, “You knew! You knew this whole time!”

“Actually, I guessed. I suspected she had True Sight, but it won’t work on her…”

Her anger faded immediately. “What? What do you mean?”

Sweetie Belle spoke up, “Sorry, Scootaloo. When he pulled me aside, it was to warn me that I probably have True Sight. He told me True Sight won’t work on those with True Sight, so he guessed that might be my talent. What I don’t understand is, what just happened? I don’t know anything more about Scootaloo. I barely saw anything at all!”

“I don’t know. That door has to mean something, but I don’t know what,” I said. I then noticed that Sweetie Belle was smiling bashfully back at Scootaloo’s glare.

“You don’t hate me, right?”

“Hate you?! How could you ever say that?!” said Scootaloo, startled, her glare quickly turning to concern.

“’Cause I have True Sight, and I lied to you…”

“I don’t hate you. Geeze! It just sucks that now I’m the only one in the club without a cutie mark!” she huffed in anger. I wanted to be surprised, but I knew this would be her reaction. She was a year younger than the others, so it made sense that her cutie mark would lag behind.

“Hey, we’ll help you find your cutie mark just like you helped us find ours. You’re our friend, and we Cutie Mark Crusaders stick together! Besides, you’re basically my sister now, thanks to him, so you’re stuck with me for good!”

“Cool, but what now?”

“Now,” I interjected, “we take Sweetie to see Twilight. She knows some things about True Sight, and maybe she has a book that can explain what this door means. It makes no sense to me.”

“Probably a good idea,” said Sweetie Belle. “Let’s go.”

Comments

[recentteen14]

On one hand, Gary Stu as all hell, on the other, kinda comes with the territory when THAT is the special talent. Surprised he hasn't gone insane yet... Then again, could be worse. Could be 'read others like an open book' like one of my OCs. May not be as strong, but doesn't need the eye contact either. I shudder to imagine the pony who knows everything about another creature just by looking at a single part of them...

[Von Voctavia]

He should tell Scootaloo she can stay over at his house. :)

[Cold Spike]

6603148 That's what makes him fun to write. Yes, he's powerful, but it's not like he wants it.

[Cold Spike]

6603550 But why?