Elements of Foregiveness part 1: Honesty

Both eyes were closed, so Hokey Smokes didn’t get a single glance at the ponies that were likely going to be assaulting him. He had been rude, a thief, and even attacked them with the apples that they worked hard to grow. At this point, he wouldn’t have blamed them at all if this was how it ended. It wasn’t how he wanted it to end, the encounter as he knew they wouldn’t take his life over such a petty thing, but it wasn’t likely up to him. He was prepared to be defeated, tensing up for the first signs of pain, when suddenly he heard chuckling. This could have been at the words, at his expression, or any number of things. It was fairly obvious, though, that they weren’t going to be attacking him at this point. The chuckling, both the filly and the mare obviously couldn’t contain themselves, turned into full-fledged laughter. It isn’t that funny, is it? Do they normally laugh at people who fear for their lives? Probably not, but that only leaves one thing. Is there something on my face? It didn’t dawn on him that the sheer idea of violence was not something that had entered either of their minds.

A hoof moved to check his face, and nothing out of the ordinary was there. Eyes slowly opened to see that there were the two ponies standing right in front of him. The laughter had been forced to quiet, but there were still wide grins on their faces. Something about all of this was funny to them, obviously, but it still wasn’t obvious what. Hokey Smokes assumed that they weren’t going to be happy about the apple, or making the young filly cry, or assaulting one of them with the fruit. None of those were things that created friendships, after all. The next thing that he saw, though, was the young filly’s head shake. It was almost as if she was judging him, but that would have been rude. Instead, he waited to hear something to make anything that had happened make any sense. Luckily for him, that didn’t take long.

“Ah can’t believe ah was afraid of that.” Applebloom started, barely holding back a returning chuckle.

That might have been the thing that she was chuckling about before, the fact that she had been afraid of a stallion whose first reaction was the wish that his face be unharmed. Even with that reasoning for her, there wasn’t much for the other one. Why would she have laughed as well? Who was she, anyway? That was a question that was likely best left unasked. Every pony in Ponyville likely knew each other, it was a small town. If he asked her, she would ask him, and then there would be something bad when she learned that it was him that had confronted Twilight Sparkle. Of course, that fear could be completely unfounded. Hokey Smokes had been afraid of being hit for what he had done, he was obviously delusional. A couple shakes of his head; it must have been the hunger that hit him. One apple was great, but he normally ate more. And that’s why I don’t have any money right now, I guess. Well, that and the fact that I’m not that good of a performer. A glance to Applebloom, and then to the older mare, put a final piece of the puzzle down.

They had to be related, maybe even sisters. That would have made his move worse, with the need to protect her even more obvious.

“Ah thought he was gonna be some sorta scary stallion from yer description.”

That was another piece of the puzzle down. She had laughed because of the fact that he wasn’t scary at all. Hokey Smokes had frightened the little filly, likely startle was a better word, and she had gone to tell about him. Applebloom had told her relative that he was something worse than he was, or maybe her mind had actually made him seem worse than he was. Either way, the mare had gone out there to try to take down a threat to the orchard. That left one big question, though, about what was going to happen next. He might be allowed to head out, but there was no reason to tie him down if they just intended to let him go. I don’t think I’m going to have the strength to get out, and definitely not the speed to go faster than the mare. She’s fast, too fast for me. Teleporting would be nice right about now, but I’m not able to do that. Wait, no, might as well try. With that thought, he started to focus on his horn. All of his energy was put into trying to go anywhere else, he needed to just get a good hundred feet in any direction to give himself a good head start.

His horn started to glow; it was enough to startle the two of them. Hokey Smokes could feel it; his magic was going to do it. He started to concentrate harder, trying to force as much energy as he had into his horn. By this time, he was starting to lose focus. It started with a small headache, originating at his horn. This was the same thing that had happened before. That was before, though, and he was going to make sure that he fought through it this time. Nothing would stop him from going far away; he was going to do it. A light enveloped him, almost as if he was going to do it. The light shot out, and then he opened his eyes to see exactly what had happened. He was surely a good distance away; the two ponies were likely nowhere near. When he opened his eyes, though, he saw two blank stares at him. Neither of them knew what to say, and Hokey Smokes didn’t really want to say anything to the same two ponies that had captured him when he had tried to flee.

Hokey Smokes had gone nowhere, and had a headache to show for it.

“What in the hay was that about?”

What was what about? Hokey Smokes didn’t want to tell about his failure, didn’t even want to continue to think about it. He had a headache, which was bad enough by itself, but the thought that he couldn’t do this basic spell was something that made his face change to a frown. I have to try to get out of this. Well… they seem nice enough; I might just get away with asking. Yeah, that should work. He forced a smile onto his face, though it was fairly obvious that it was forced, and then he gave a few seconds of thought about what he was going to say. “I was hungry and ate an apple. I… didn’t expect anypony to find me before I left. But if you’d be so kind as to l-“ He didn’t even finish, the glare that hit him was almost enough to scare him. The filly was just looking at him, as if to wonder why there would be some sort of problem with eating a single apple. Of course, it likely came from the idea that nopony would be poor enough to where they actually had to go about stealing. Regardless of why, he couldn’t look at her anymore, he had to focus on the mare that was glaring.

“That’s not what ah meant. What was that light? Why did ya just take an apple? And why did ya have to go and scare mah sister like that?”

Those were good questions. If it were any other situation, or maybe even a good day, he might have felt inclined to answer them all. Today wasn’t a good day, though, so Hokey Smokes had to think. Which one, or ones, did he feel like answering? The one about scaring her was likely the one that he could answer without bringing up failures. Also, note to self. Do not try to teleport again. His head still hurt, rather bad actually. Alright, so I know one of the questions to answer. The first one is about my attempt to escape; the second one is about me stealing the apple. Neither of those are questions that I want to answer, not to her at least, so I think I’ll just ignore them for now. “I didn’t mean to, I just… woke up wrong. After I got hit with an apple core, I might have overreacted a little. And for that, I apologize. I should not have reacted in the way I did.”

“It’s alright, ah forgive ya.” Applebloom stated quickly, though for some reason she didn’t have the wide grin on her face anymore. If this were any other pony, he might wonder about the apology for throwing the apple core. Hokey Smokes had a subtle feeling that this wasn’t going to happen, though, so he let it go.

“Ya aren’t gettin out of those other questions so easily.”

It was obvious that he would have to come up with something. A lie might work, but that didn’t feel right. It was alright to ignore a question, but it wasn’t alright to tell a lie. That was just wrong. Then again, maybe I should tell about some sort of unbelievable thing that ends with the truth. Surely she’ll throw the whole thing out, and assume that I don’t want to tell her. Or maybe she’ll just make me tell her. She can probably sit here all day if she has to, and I can’t go anywhere until she lets me out. I am in quite the predicament. Wait, no, the truth is the only thing I have to say. She’ll understand, right? The ponies in this town aren’t completely heartless, are they? I’ve only met a few, but still. I have a feeling that everything might not turn out horribly.

“Well, you see, that light was me failing.” The questioning glance, from both of them, was let him know that it wasn’t enough. “You see, I was hoping that I might get away. I know how this spell should work, I remember having done it before, but there is definitely something to be said about execution. As you can see, I didn’t actually teleport anywhere…”

A look of realization came to the mare’s face, and she snickered. “So you were tryin one of those spells that Twilight uses all the time?”

“Twilight who?” The question was almost not needed. Hokey Smokes had the feeling that the name was linked to the one pony who he didn’t want to see right then.

“Twilight Sparkle, one of mah good friends.”

Yep, that was horrible news. His expression changed to one of panic, as if Twilight might come around at any point. It wasn’t that he thought she might kill him or anything, but he still didn’t know how to deal with that part of his life. Hokey Smokes had hoped to put that behind him, but it was obvious that this wasn’t going to happen. Once again, he got two questioning glances.

“You just look like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. What makes you think something’s wrong?”

“Uh-huh.” The mare simply glared at him, but he didn’t crack. Hokey Smokes was a wall, unbreakable in his desire to not tell her that he had assaulted her friend. There was a lot to be said about telling the truth, but this was definitely not one of those times when it would turn out good at all. “And the appl-“

That question was cut off by a rumble of a stomach. Hokey Smokes was going to say something, right before that had happened. A blush covered his face, and then he glanced down. Well, no use beating around the bush. “I might just be a wanderer with no real home to speak of. My shows haven’t been getting as many ponies as I would want. And I didn’t want to go into Ponyville for… reasons.” I don’t have to lay everything out. I can have some secrets and she’ll probably not hate me for it. Wait… why do I care if she hates me? I’m going to head out as soon as possible, and I won’t look back. At the same time, though, he was staring down a mare who seemed like she was thinking of some sort of plan of her own.