Limestone Goes to Anger Management Classes

It was Wednesday again. Time for Limestone's second week of anger management classes. It took Limestone a while, but she eventually finished the "I'm sorry" essay she had to write for Brick. She SO did not want to do that, but she had to. She did have a feeling Brick wouldn't except it, but she didn't care. All that mattered was getting it done, so Miss Summer would be satisfied and still teach her how to control her anger. Cause she did need this.

Limestone eventually got to the building for her class. Everypony was there. She went up to Brick to give him her essay.

"Here ya go Brick. I wrote it. I hope this makes you happy, or at the very least, satisfied." She said as she gave him the essay.

Brick looked at it. Skimmed through the pages. He snorted at her, and then sat down next to Silver Thriller.

Limestone looked annoyed. He didn't even say "Thank You" to her. He probably was still pissed at her because of last week. She didn't think he was the kind of guy to hold a grudge.

However, to be fair, she wasn't to happy with him either. He was the one pulled a knife on her last week. Regardless as to whether she called him an idiot or not, that was still way to far. She wanted to say something to him, but decided against it.

She looked over and saw Jem and Bass talking to each other. They looked to be getting along pretty well. She didn't know what they were talking about, but it looked to be enjoying each other's company. Maybe there was something going on between them. Something.....nice.

She then looked over at Hard Drive, who was reading her book that she brought last week, which was called "The Night Listener" by Armistead Neighpin. She looked to be very intrigued by the book. Very interested in the story. Limestone liked to read, but she never heard of this book. Maybe she'd ask her about it later.

She lastly looked over to Silver Thriller, who was writing in his notepad. As he was writing, he seemed to get frustrated and ripped out pages, throwing them in the trash can next to him. He looked like a kind of pony who took what he does extremely serious, and would critique himself when he messed up.

Brick was just laying back in his chair, avoiding eye contact with Limestone. She noticed this, but said nothing.

Then Summer walked in, ready to start her class.

"Hello again everypony. It's nice to see you all again. How was everypony this week?" She asked very sweetly.

Everypony responded with either a "good", "okay", or "meh".

"Well that is good. Now I'd like to address something that happened last week that caused our class to end early." She looked over at Limestone and Brick.

"You two almost got into an altercation last week. And if you are to be in this class still, you both need to get along. I'm not saying you need to be friends, but just at least cooperate. So I want you two to apologise to each other." She said with a serious look on her face.

Limestone and Brick got up at the same time and came up to each other, staring themselves in the face. It was quiet for a little bit. Then they both said what Summer told them to do.

"Sorry." They both said at the same time. Then backing up and sitting in their respective chairs.

"Thank you to both of you. Now before we get to today's lesson, I never got to know what makes you angry Brick. Or you Silver Thriller. So I'd like to hear that from both of you." She said as she got out her notepad. "Because of last week, Brick why don't you start. Tell me, what makes you angry?" Summer asked him.

Brick had a bitter look on his face as he spoke.

"You wanna know? I'll tell ya. It's when ponies like her-" pointing to Limestone "critique me, make fun of me, and laugh at me for nothing. I've had that done to me my whole life, and I'm sick of it." Brick said very angrily.

Limestone looked angry to, because he was partially talking about her in a negative way.

"Does that mean you've been bullied your whole life?" Summer asked, now having a sympathetic look on her face.

"Yeah. My old man was verbally abusive to me growing up. And sometimes physical." Brick said looking very angry.

This caused everypony in the room to look shocked to hear this. Why would anypony treat their child like that?

"How often did your father do this to you? And why did he do this?" Summer asked, looking very concerned.

"My mom walked out on my dad when I was a foal. I think he blamed me being born on my mom leaving him. And as far as abusing me, he was verbally abusive every Fucking day. He'd call me an idiot, stupid, and a dumbass. And he'd hit me if I got into some trouble that may or may not have been my fault." He said.

This caused everypony, even Limestone to feel sympathy for him. They didn't know he had a hard life growing up.

"Then one day, I got my cutie mark. I'm an actor. A drama theater actor to be exact. I was so excited when I got my cutie mark. Went home to show him. I thought he'd be proud of me. You wanna know what he said?" Brick said.

"What?" Summer asked, feeling bad for him. She knew this wasn't going to be well.

"He said "Ha, how can an idiot like you get a cutie mark? And a drama cutie mark? I bet you'll suck at it. Little idiot." That was the last straw. I'm not kidding you guys, I told him off. I told him you don't love me, you are a jackass, a terrible father, everything. Then he hit me so hard, he broke my jaw." Brick sad, rubbing his muzzle.

Now this caused everypony in the room to put their heads down in shame. No wonder he had anger problems. His father was horrible to him.

"Then my dad got arrested, and I hope that piece of shit rots there forever. And keep in mind, at school I didn't have a lot of friends, because I get into a lot of fights when somepony insults me. I did get bullied, but I fought back and would usually get my ass kicked. Then one day, some bullies jumped me. So I lost my temper, and I elbowed one of them in his head and kept doing it, till he bled. Those guys ran away, scared outta there minds. And the guy I elbowed suffered a concussion. But, of course, I got in trouble for assault, even though they jumped me first. So now I have to spend a year and a half in a juvenile detention center, and 12 weeks in this anger management class. So that's what makes me angry. When people fuck with me, and think they can get away with it. That is why I'm here." Brick finished his story, looking angry and frustrated and upset all at once.

Everypony looked shocked, hearing this story. Now this was some pony who had anger problems. Not just anger, but flat out HATE. And had good reasons for being so. His father treated him like dirt. Like nothing his whole life. And it didn't help that he was bullied as well. No wonder he was anger prone. Who wouldn't be in that situation.

"Thank you for sharing that Brick. And let me just say I'm very sorry about everything you've gone through. I can see what makes you angry is that you've never had anypony say anything good about you or your accomplishments your whole life. It's not just frustration from never getting that your whole life, it's that you wanted your dad to be proud of you. And no matter what, he never gave it to you. Did he?" Summer explained.

"Pff. Damn right. I just wanted to make that piece of shit happy. But I never could do it. Screw him. I don't care what happens to him." Brick said with a frown on his face. However, when he said that, there was something about what he said made it look like he really didn't mean it. Did he still love his dad? It could be possible.

Now Limestone felt something for this guy. She felt bad about calling him, along with everypony in class an idiot last week. She also knew where he was coming from. Igneous wasn't exactly the best father to her growing up. Granted, he never physically beat her or called her names like Brick's Dad did. But he was hard on her, expecting her to be the best rock farmer ever. All because she was the oldest foal. He also would get on her for not watching out for her younger siblings when they would hurt themselves or get into trouble. He always said that because she was the oldest, she had a certain responsibility to them. But Igneous did that because, deep down, he loved her very much and only wanted what was best for her. And, maybe, because he was a bit hard on her, it caused her to toughen up. For a tough world.

"Does anypony have anything to say about that?" Summer asked.

Silver Thriller raised his hoof.

"Silver, why don't you tell Brick what you think about that?" She said.

Brick looked at him very crossly. He looked like he wasn't in the mood for criticism.

"Well Miss Summer, what I'm about to say is kinda what makes me angry as well." He said to her.

"Okay." Summer said.

Silver turned to look at Brick. He had a serious, but sympathetic look on his face.

"You know Brick, you and I are kind of in the same boat. I didn't have the best relationship with my dad. He was hard on me. He wasn't the nicest toward me, and he even hit me on rare occasions." He said looking sad.

Brick took notice to this, and started to listen carefully to Silver.

"Then, when I got my cutie mark, he became really hard on me even more. He pushed me to write better than anypony. I would write stories for him to read. And when I thought I wrote the perfect story, he'd crush that thought and critique it and have me write again. It was frustrating for me. I've always had a strained relationship with my dad. He wanted me to be better than anypony. He, at times, made me hate writing. Cause he was really hard on me." Silver said.

Brick looked at him with a straight expression.

"And I wanted my dad to be proud of me too. And I felt angry that I could never get that done. So I know how you feel about that." He said to him as Brick had his head down in sympathy.

"And what also made me angry is not only what my dad did to me growing up, but at myself as well." Silver said looking down in shame. This caused Brick to pick his head back up and respond to him.

"Why would you be angry at yourself? What could you have done at your age? You couldn't have fought him or argued with him without getting hit. If you thought it was your fault for your relationship with your dad, your outta your freaking mind man." Brick said very seriously.

"No, it's not any of that. What I'm saying is that I felt what you felt. No matter what I did, it was never enough for anypony. They always shit on it. And it made me feel angry not only at others, but at myself for not getting better at learning from my mistakes. What I'm asking is that, have you ever felt angry about that before? At yourself for not learning from your mistakes?" Silver asked him.

Brick was silent for a little bit, until he said "Yeah. I get pissed at myself for not doing better. I'm mad at myself for letting ponies get to me, and I'm mad that I keep letting my dad get to me, even though he's in jail now. I want to be happy, but I can't get over what my dad did to me growing up. And I don't know if I ever will." Brick said very sadly.

Silver put his hoof on Brick in a couple comforting way.

"Hey, you have every right to be angry at him, but you shouldn't let him control your life. I'll admit I've kicked my dad out of my life. But the reason is because I know if he was in my life, he'd try to control it. And I want to control it myself. So, ultimately, you should try to move on from him. Try to start living your life the way you want to. If you like the theater, keep doing it because you love it. And I'll keep writing because I love it. Don't let stuff from the past control you. Cause your better than that. I know you can do it." He said to him very inspiringly.

Brick smiled at him. He extended his hoof to Silver for a hoof shake. Silver gladly accepted.

"Thanks Silver. I needed that." Brick said, looking like he was feeling a lot better.

This caused everypony in the room, including Limestone, to smile.

"That was wonderful advice you gave Thriller. I also want everypony here to do the same. If you have advice, give it out. It's not just me helping here. It's all of you. Like I said, we are a team. And team members help out each other as best as they can." Summer said very proudly.

This caused everypony to smile.

"Now for today's lesson. I want to start by giving out some anger management tips." Summer said getting our another note pad.

Over the hour and fifteen minutes, Summer gave some very basic tips on how to control anger. For example, taking deep breaths, thinking before we speak, using assertiveness as away to express how angry we feel instead of an aggressive way, exercising, and leaving a room to cool off when you feel angry, in other words, a timeout that is used to calm the nerves. Now she was going to use some other tips that could be very helpful for her students.

"All right everypony, for the last fifteen minutes of our session, lets do something a little bit different. This last one I'm going to teach you all is not only helpful for anger, but it can reduce the chances of an argument. Now let me ask all of you a question: when you have gotten angry at some pony, have you ever said "You never do this or that" or "You don't ever do so and so". If anypony here has, please raise your hoof." She said to everypony.

Everypony in the class, including Limestone raised their hooves.

"I see. Now what those are called are "You" statements. Meaning that you state something that starts with "You". Well, a really helpful tip to help control anger is to use an"I" statement. What I mean by that is this. For example, instead of saying "You never do any housework" say "I'm upset that you didn't offer to wash the dishes for me." When you say that, it shows that you not only are being honest, but you aren't placing blame on them when you feel angry. When you do that, that will lead to some fights, and make some serious tension that you do not want." Summer said to her classmates.

This caused everypony to be quite intrigued with what she said. They never thought of that before. That actually sounded like a good idea to use.

"I'll even admit right here. I used these "I" statements on my daughter Autumn. When I would tell her to clean her room, and she wouldn't, I would tell her "I'm very upset that you didn't clean your room like I asked you to." And when I used that, she would apologise and get to cleaning her room like I asked before. If I used a "You" statement and said "You never do what I ask you to do" it would have lead to an argument with her, which is something most parents do not want." Summer explained.

Now this got everypony's attention. This could actually be a helpful tip.

"Now I'd like to try this in a role-playing way. I need two volunteers to do this." Summer said.

She looked and picked the two ponies she wanted.

"Limestone and Hard Drive, would you two come up here please?" Summer asked nicely.

Hard Drive and Limestone got up and went to the center of the circle of chairs.

"Now I want to put you two in a situation: Hard Drive, I want you to imagine Limestone forgot to do something around the house for you. And you are about to tell her how you feel about her forgetting it. What is it that you say?" Summer asked her.

Hard Drive cleared her throat before she spoke. "Um,.......Limestone, I'm very peeved that you forgot to take out the trash to the side of the road." Hard Drive spoke to her in a not-so-convincing way. It's okay though. It's not like it was acting class of anything.

"Impressive Hard Drive. Impressive. Now let's switch places. Limestone, I want you to imagine that you and Hard Drive are on your rock farm, and you tell her to do something, but does something else. What do you say to her?" Summer asked her.

This reminded Limestone of the night she had her outburst. When she yelled at Marble for not following her to the mines, and doing something else because her father told her to. Because she was in this situation before, she knew what to do.

"Hard Drive, I'm very angry that you didn't follow me to the mines like I told you to do. It was very stressful work for me, and I expected you to help. But you didn't. I'm very upset." Limestone said in a scolding kind of way.

Summer smiled at this and clapped her hooves. "I'm so proud of both of you. You both did a phenomenal job." She said very proudly of them.

They both smiled and sat back down.

"Okay everypony, our session today is over. Same time next week, okay? I look forward to seeing you all again. Have a nice week." Summer said, bidding farewell to her students.

Everypony bid her farewell too as they left the building.

Limestone was walking out the door to the train station. However, she noticed that Hard Drive was following her. She didn't know that she took the train as well.

"Where are you headed off to?" Limestone asked her curiously.

"Oh, I had to take an early train to get to Madneighson. I have to see my sister and daughter." Hard Drive explained to her as she looked up from her book.

Limestone saw her eyes in the book. She figured she'd ask her what it was about.

"So, whats that book your reading?"

"Oh this. It's called "The Night Listener." It's a very good read. One of my favorites." Hard Drive said smiling with joy.

"Okay. So what's it about? I've never heard of this book." Limestone asked her.

"Well it's about..." Hard Drive then explained to her what the book was about, but not to much to give spoilers. This made Limestone smile. This sounded like a good book to read. Maybe she'd go to the library and see if they had a copy of it.

When the train came, they talked for a while. They got to know each other a little bit. It felt nice, Limestone felt, to actually talk with somepony other than her sisters for once.

Then, Hard Drive's stop came. They bid each other farewell, and said they'd see each other next week.

Then, the train left, until it, ultimately, stopped near the outskirts of the rock farm she lived on.

As she walked towards her destination, she felt proud. Proud about the fact that she really learned something today on how to control her anger. It made her feel good inside.

And she also seems to get along with one of her fellow classmates. It seemed she was making friends. Something she never got to do when she was a filly. She liked that very much.

Maybe these classes were going to be fun after all.