Our Day in Disdain | Chapter 3| Grin and Grim

The citizens of Ponyville hurried along the lamp-hung streets, glancing worriedly above their heads as they rushed home from the markets as another day of bustling commerce came to an end. Thoughts of supper and sleeping competed with worries about the weather and arriving home soaked to the bone, for an ugly snarl of clouds was being herded above the town by the local weather team.

It wasn't until the first mumbling of thunder before Dashie began to come blearily awake in an alley behind one of Ponyville's markets. She tried unsuccessfully to open her eyes, but after a while she was able to force her eyelids apart and separate the crust of dried blood that had fused them shut. Her vision was blurry and her nose felt larger than the rest of her head. She prodded it delicately with a hoof but drew back as her gentle touch sent shivers of pain shooting up her muzzle. "broken" She thought and placed both hooves on each side of her muzzle and sharply twisted her nose in place, clenching her teeth against a cry of pain as her eyes filled with tears.

She blinked them away and looked skyward when another growl of thunder rumbled above her head. The light from the town's many lamps and lighted windows painted the lower tatters of the storm clouds a leprous yellow-gray, while farther away along the horizon, the sun was setting and all that remained in the sky was an odd sickly glow, almost puce in color, as if the sky hadn't been feeling well. An eerie, warm, moist wind rose from all sides of the town and began tumbling litter, dust, and sand down the town's emptying streets; and Dashie felt stuck between the violent darkness of the encroaching storm and the last flickering embers of daylight.

***

Twilight Sparkle was leafing intently through a book, trying to ignore the silence of Sugarcube Corner’s empty cafe when the door opened and Rarity trotted inside and out of the wind.

“So sorry to be late, Twilight.” Rarity raised a hoof to her mane to tame some loose hairs. “I meant to be here sooner but I was helping Sweetie Belle with her homework. You’d think that filly would be able to do her fractions by now...”

Twilight looked up from her book, such that her head looked up but her eyes stayed trained to the pages. “It’s alright.. Rarity.” Twilight said.  “I was so involved in my book that I hadn’t even noticed you were late. I hadn’t even noticed the wind was picking up either.” Twilight nodded to the open door which was letting leaves and dust get blown in by the wind.

Rarity caught the hint and shut the door, before opening it again and kicking out some of the leaves and muttering something unladylike about them.
“Did you know that you can only even remember anything once?” Twilight read aloud to Rarity. “After that you're just remembering the last time you remembered it.”

“That’s fascinating.” Rarity said trying to sound sincere, although her words came across sarcastic and cynical to Twilight since she wasn’t looking up completely; she could practically hear Rarity rolling her eyes at her.

“Oh.” Twilight said, now looking at her book as it was a fairy tale meant to amuse small foals. “Well I thought it was interesting...”

“No no, darling. I didn’t mean it like that” Rarity said as Twilight finally looked up from her book. “I’ve just had a dreadfully long day. I’m not in the best of moods.”

“Oh it’s fine.” Twilight said as Rarity trotted over and joined her at the table. “All it really is is a book about metaphysical theories. There’s really no scientific backing to them either... so you said Sweetie Belle is having trouble with fractions?”

“Like you wouldn't believe.” Rarity sighed “And it’s not just fractions either. She’s struggling with math, geography... Even her hoof-writing leaves a lot to be desired.” She said with a flippant gesture. “Cheerilee says that if she doesn't start showing improvement soon she might have to hold her back a grade.”

“Have you tried getting her a tutor?” Twilight said with a grin that suggested her services were available.

We’ve tried everything from private tutors, to alternative teaching methods...She’s just not getting it.” Rarity said, exasperated “At this point I’m ready to just throw my hooves in the air and tell her ‘you better start making friends with the foals from the previous grade because they’re all going to be your friends next year’.”

“That probably wouldn’t be the best approach.” Twilight said matter-of-factly. “Foals want to please their parents and teachers; They want to learn and succeed. Before you blame Sweetie Belle for these problems or allow Cheerilee to do so, be sure to check if there might be a reason for her lack of success.”

“I know that wouldn’t work, it just gets really frustrating.” Rarity said. “You can only explain fractions to decimals so many times before...” Rarity put her head in her hooves and rested them on the table. “ it’s just so monotonous!”
“Maybe the problem is environmental?” Twilight pondered aloud. “Foals tend to emulate their parents, the ones they look up to, or those in authority. So if the ones they are emulating have negative personality traits such as laziness or forgetfulness, those traits tend to become imbued onto the child’s personality.”

“Are you saying I’m forgetful?” Rarity looked through her hooves at Twilight with narrowed eyes. “I’ve went through that filly’s math book with her so many times that I can practically recite every page by heart.”

“I’m not saying you’re forgetful.” Twilight attempted to reason. “it’s just tha-”

“I know that book better than I do sewing and dressmaking,” Rarity retorted. “and I know those like the back of my hoof.”

“I didn’t mea-”

“Before you can add or subtract fractions with uncommon denominators,” Rarity recited. “you first have to change the fractions so that all fractions being added or subtracted have the same denominator.”

Twilight stopped trying to explain herself and let her friend continue uninterrupted.

“Numerators and denominators are like sisters and brothers” Rarity continued. “They need to be treated ‘the same’. Whatever you give to one, you must give the exact same to the other or it ‘wouldn’t be fair’...”

“Wouldn’t be fair” Rarity imitated sarcastically while making air quotations with her hooves. “it’s like it was written by a foal.”

“Well they are meant for foals..” Twilight said sheepishly.

Rarity scoffed and placed her hooves on the table with a generous thud. “Well they’re not meant for me.” She said indignantly “I’m reading that stupid book to Sweetie Belle so much that I don’t even have time for my own sewing anymore.”


“How is your sewing anyway?” Twilight asked, delighted at a chance to change the subject. “Pinkie told me you’ve been working nonstop.”

“Exhausting.” Rarity sighed. “I’m up to my neck in orders and I’ll be lucky to even finish in time for the Gala next month.”

“Speaking of,I just remembered. I brought a gift for you!” Twilight said, closing her book with her magic and levitating it into her saddlebag which she had beside her on the floor. in the book’s place she brought out a small stack of gold paper “One, two, three. Three Gala tickets!” she counted aloud as she placed each ticket onto the table “One for you, one for me, and one for Pinkie when she gets out of the kitchen”

“What is she doing in there anyway?” Rarity asked while using her own magic to take her Gala ticket from Twilight. “I arrived late and I was still here earlier than her.”

“She said she had a new recipe for a cupcake she wanted us to try” Twilight said while putting her own ticket back into her saddlebag and leaving Pinkie’s on the table.

“Let’s just hope it’s better than the last ‘new cupcake pinkie wanted us to try’.” Rarity made air quotations with her hooves “You remember, the ones where she accidentally mixed up the measurements for the salt and sugar and the things came out tasting like a salt-lick with frosting?” Rarity’s lips tugged up into a small smirk.

“I remember.” Twilight said through a giggle. “Spike loved them though!”

***

The sun, now hidden by the gathered storm clouds, finally set behind the mountains. As the landscape faded into darkness. Dashie was fully awake by now and was relieved when she saw the alley absent of the painful crowd from the earlier afternoon.

She pulled herself onto her hooves and immediately cried out in agony. There were several lines of bright, clear pain crossing the backs of her hooves and a dull ache that pulled at her left side every time she drew a breath. She was also dizzy and nauseous when she moved her head too quickly and her nose was broken. She was also hungry.

She hadn’t noticed the hunger at first, but the wind was picking up and she could smell vegetables cooking somewhere in town and soon realized that her stomach was in a hard knot; yelling at her to go looking for the source of the smell.

Dashie limped out of the alley and into the rising wind and empty market streets. The wind sighed through the square and set the shop signs creaking against their hooks, and brushed a trail of debris, like autumn leaves, down the cobbled roads which were already starting to lose the last of the sun’s heat.

The wind wafted past where groups of ponies would’ve stood at vendor carts and vegetable stands, exchanging bits for groceries while street performers would play their instruments for loose change. Wafted past where clusters of foals would’ve filled the town with the sounds of conversation and laughter that one would expect from a school cafeteria during the bright hours of the afternoon. But these ponies were ushered inside at the first signs of the leering storm clouds; so now the market was still, and silent.

There was no more music, no more laughing, only the sounds of a damp wind that didn’t want to stop and the hoofsteps of an injured mare trotting through the light of the town’s lamps that illuminated the streets at regular intervals.

Dashie sat down in the middle of the square. She was dizzy and her ribs hurt, and by now the wind had blown the smell she was following all over until the whole town smelled like the fragrance of vegetables and the cool tinge of the coming rain.

She sniffed, testing the air for the elusive scent, but it was for naught; the smell was simply everywhere. She looked around the square and spotted a patch of weeds growing through the cracks in the road and dug them out with her hoof and popped them into her mouth. The taste was incredibly acrid, but with the smell of dinner pervading the entire town, she had to eat something; anything to ease the pangs of her empty stomach.

It helped somewhat, but not enough to quell her hunger. She got back onto her hooves, despite being dizzy and weary, and began look around the square for more plants to eat and soon began to notice other smells in the air besides stewing vegetables; Smells like yeast, cinnamon, frying fat, and coffee.

It was a special kind of smell, one that only comes from the constant flow of pastries and sweets, and as Dashie followed it she soon found herself looking up at the facade of the town’s bakery; Sugarcube Corner.

The bakery had a confectionery theme, appearing as if to be a life-sized gingerbread house, and resembled many of the goods produced within: There were chocolate bark roof shingles with swirls of icing about the eaves, peppermint candy cane pillars just outside the front door, and even the spire was built to look like a pink frosted cupcake.


Dashie’s mouth was awash with saliva from just looking at the bakery, and her stomach  was squeezing into an even tighter knot. Dashie wanted to eat the bakery, and she was so delusional from hunger that for a moment she actually thought it would be a good idea.

She trotted up to a section of wall painted a graham-cracker brown, but before she could even consider taking a bite, another idea flashed through her mind: Bakeries make their pastries fresh every day, and always throw out what they don’t sell at the end of the day.

She bet that if she simply went behind Sugarcube Corner and dug through the dumpsters a bit, she’d find a myriad of baked goods that haven’t even had the chance to stale yet. And while an entire meal of pastries and baked goods wasn’t the healthiest, it was better than foraging around for weeds to eat, and definitely better than a mouthful of paint and wood from biting into the side of a building.

***

Twilight was silent. Not out of rudeness or as a comment on what Rarity had just said. She just didn’t know what to say in response.

“...And Sweetie Belle was so upset about what she saw this morning that she spent the extra bits I gave to her at the gem store.“ Rarity said while pouring herself some tea from a pot Pinkie had brought earlier while waiting for her cupcakes to cool. “Unintentionally of course. Poor filly came back with almost sixty emeralds.”

“Maybe it was some other pegasus she saw.” Twilight gave a smile that was a strange mix of grin and grim. “Or maybe if it was her she was just passing through?”

“No, it was definitely her.” Rarity retorted. “She’s been gone long enough for everypony to forget her name, and she left long before Sweetie Belle was born; so there’s no other way she could have picked up the name.”

“Dashie...” Rarity grumbled after swallowing a sip of tea. “No doubt here to cause more trouble for Rainbow Dash, and I thought we had gotten rid of her after the incident with Honey Drop.” She practically spat the last words.

Twilight was at a loss for words. She could feel the growing tension in the air as Rarity brooded and wanted to say something to lighten the mood, but was unable to find a way to safely navigate the minefield she was about to step into. Luckily Pinkie had just pushed through the kitchen’s swinging doors carrying a plate of gourmet looking cupcakes in her mouth and set them on the table her friends were sitting at.

Wow Pinkie, those look amazing!” Twilight said, relieved she had an excuse to change the subject.

“I agree, darling.” chimed Rarity. “They look more delicious than anything ever sold by Sugarcube Corner. However did you make them?”

“Oh, it’s just an old recipe Granny Pie taught me” Pinkie said with a dismissive roll of her eyes. “Pumpkin spice, with a little extra spice.”

“What do you mean, extra?” Rarity raised an eyebrow before taking a bite from a cupcake.

“Rum!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Spiced rum and extra cinnamon.”

Tastes… Rich. “Twilight said with a cough. “Very… warming.”

“You do know you’re supposed to bake the alcohol out, right?” Rarity

“Of course I know, silly fillies” Pinkie Pie giggled. “But these cupcakes don’t have the rum baked in. You’re supposed to poke them when they come out of the oven and are all soft and mushy and use a pastry brush to coat them with the rum; they not for our normal customers.”

“Well who are they for?” Rarity asked after taking a bite, grimacing as the kick from the rum was much bigger than she expected.

“They’re for good friends on those chilly autumn nights!’” Pinkie said whilst doing her best Granny Pie impression. “So what do you think? Did I add enough sugar this time?”

Twilight swallowed her own bite of cupcake. “Well, after you get used to the.. kick, they’re actually very good!”


“I agree,” Said rarity who had already finished her first cupcake and was levitating another with her magic “And you sure did pick the perfect night for these, this storm is going to be absolutely dreadful. Twilight, be a dear and close the window please.” Rarity waved her cupcake towards an open window on the other side of the room that was now letting in some stray raindrops.

Twilight got up from her chair and trotted over to the window. With a short burst of her magic she slid the wooden frame shut and was about to draw the blinds when she thought she saw somehting dart away from the window outside.

“Twilight?” Rarity asked when the lavender unicorn didn’t return right away “Twilight are you ok?” Rarity turned around to see Twilight gazing intently out the window. “Twilight dear, what are you looking at?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m not looking at anything,” Twilight stammered “I just thought I saw something…”

***

There was an excited flutter in Dashie’s stomach as she sat against Sugarcube Corner’s dumpster, content and in a light mood. She was correct in her assumptions and didn’t even have to dig through the dumpsters at all, as there were a veritable smorgasbord of treats and pastries at the top of the trash pile; some even carrying a little heat after just coming from under the warming lights.

There were pies and tarts with flakey crusts, fritters of many different fruits, cupcakes and muffins with rich, sweet frosting, and even some of Dashie’s favorite treats; chocolate eclairs. Dashie was overjoyed.

She had a sampling of every pastry she could find. She ate until her stomach hurt and then ate a little more, before settling down against the dumpster to give her stomach a rest and a chance to digest the banquet she had just consumed.

It wasn’t long before she began to feel the soft beckons of sleep. Her tummy was full and she could feel heat being blown softly on her from an exhaust fan connected to the ovens inside Sugarcube Corner. The bakery stood as a barrier against the wind, so the heat wrapped around Dashie like a soft blanket that smelled of cake frosting and sugar crystals.

She didn’t mind that she was falling asleep, let alone falling asleep on the ground behind a bakery; she just wanted to close her eyes for a few moments…

She was soon awakened by a thunderous explosion! She bolted upright only to have to have her vision spin, and as the world came back into focus she realized it was only a simple clap of thunder that made the booming sound and not the bakery exploding or the earth falling to pieces or any of the other ideas that came from her half dream-like state.

She gazed up at the heavy storm clouds as the thunder rolled across them like an errant locomotive when a great spider of lightning crawled across the sky; illuminating everything for long second and leaving her flash-blind. As her vision returned, the great light in the sky was replaced with many drops of water streaking through the air and landing on the cobblestones. It was raining.

She stood on her hooves, still a little shaky and dizzy but not as much as before, and began to trot back into the square to find a dry place to sleep. Dashie had her eyes on the underneath of a food cart but was stopped as she heard a voice coming from a nearby window.

“...And Sweetie Belle was so upset about what she saw this morning that she spent the extra bits I gave to her at the gem store. Unintentionally of course. Poor filly came back with almost sixty emeralds.”

It was coming from Sugarcube Corner. Dashie snuck up to the window and looked inside. From the window she could see the entire front of the bakery: There was a bell above the entrance that rings every time a pony comes inside. Glass cases that usually house cinnamon twists, jelly donuts, and bagels topped with seeds and onions that were now empty from the marketday being over. A barrel that would hold slim baguettes in crinkly brown paper also sat empty near the cash register on the far side of the room. The entire room had an aroma of wholesome goodness, and Dashie could smell it in short bursts as the winds outside pulled the air inside the bakery out.

Near the window, but not close enough to see a pony spying inside, sat Rarity and Twilight Sparkle at a table; sipping from coffee cups in the soft lamplight of the room while they waited for Pinkie Pie to bring them their evening snacks fresh from the oven.

“Maybe it was some other pegasus she saw.” Twilight gave a smile that was a strange mix of grin and grim. “Or maybe if it was her she was just passing through?”

“No, it was definitely her.” Rarity retorted. “She’s been gone long enough for everypony to forget her name, and she left long before Sweetie Belle was born; so there’s no other way she could have picked up the name.”

“Dashie...” Rarity grumbled after swallowing a sip of coffee. “No doubt here to cause more trouble for Rainbow Dash, and I thought we had gotten rid of her after the incident with Honey Drop.” She practically spat the last words.

A cold sweat washed over Dashie and she felt nausea in the pit of her stomach. Not the same nausea she had felt in the alley before, which she was still feeling in small waves. It was a nausea that brewed from a cold anxiety and a mix of desperate helplessness.

It was from hearing the name ‘Honey Drop’. Dashie hadn’t heard that name in years, and even with the eave of it’s absence, hearing the name still managed to conjure up feelings of dread and fear- a fear not of her body being hurt, but for her entire life being ruined-, and it caused Dashie’s stomach to turn.

This was made worse by the fact that Dashie had just eaten, and could feel the remnants of her meal beginning to revolt against her stomach. She focused more on keeping her dinner down than listening to the conversation going on in the cafe,and before she knew it another player had entered the scene she was watching through the window.

“Wow Pinkie, those look amazing!” Twilight said with appetite in her eyes.

“I agree, darling.” Rarity chimed in agreement . “They look more delicious than anything ever sold by Sugarcube Corner. However did you make them?”

“Oh, it’s just an old recipe Granny Pie taught me” Pinkie said with a playful roll of her eyes. “Pumpkin spice, with a little extra spice.”

Twilight and Rarity were of course praising a tray of gourmet cupcakes being placed on the table by an affable pink mare. IIt took Dashie longer that she liked to admit to connect the name Pinkie Pie with the pony was looking at, but the last time she had seen Pinkie they were both foals and Pinkie was more hair than pony.

It had only been a hoof-full of years since Dashie had seen Pinkie, but the years had changed her. Now Pinkie had seemed to have grown quite well into her mane, and not to mention her body as well. Dashie herself didn’t fancy mares, but she couldn’t help but admire the many curves of Pinkie’s body that seemed to make the curves of her hair tremble with jealousy; but as Dashie drifted in and out of her thoughts she could see her hair was actually trembling from all the laughing the pink pony was partaking in with her friends.

Dashie couldn’t help but share in a quiet laugh or two, although she couldn’t hear exactly what they were laughing about and there was nopony around to laugh with her. Dashie was just happy to see her filly-hood friend after so many years, even if it was from behind the eave of a window.

Dashie was happy. She had forgotten about the storm in her stomach and the college of aches and pangs painting her body, and even for a moment forgot who she was and almost thought it a good idea to go reintroduce herself to her friend. But the moment fleete and Dashie remembered the bad things she had done to lose her friends; and the storm returned.

“-this storm is going to be absolutely dreadful. Twilight, be a dear and close the window please.”

Dashie had stopped paying attention to the conversations coming from inside again, choosing instead to navigate a swamp of her own sorrows as another cloud stormed above her head. She hadn’t even noticed the lavender unicorn approaching the window, until they were almost a hoof’s length apart

Dashie panicked, and sprung away as fast as she could. Not knowing if she was spotted, and not wanting to stick around long enough to find out, Dashie galloped away from Sugarcube Corner, but slowed to a trot as the pain in her ribs cut her breath short. She heard the window sliding closed from across the market.

The rain was coming down harder now and Dashie was half soaked. She brushed some hairs that stuck to her face away and looked around the square; she still needed to find a dry place to sleep...