Dollars on the Dime

by AShadyDetective

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Human, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Fluttershy, Flim and Flam, Original Character
Length: 1088

Every coin that has been in existence for more than a year has seen more than most ponies will see in their lives. Swiftly Treasured just wants to hear their stories and forget about his own, but it seems this new life has other plans.

Swiftly Treasured would have loved nothing more for this new life of his to be one of peace, quiet, and counting. However well meaning friends, parents constantly away on suspicious "business" trips, and the sudden appearance of foreign interests seem to disagree.

Published 2021-06-29 00:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-06-29 00:00:01 UTC

Pitching the Idea

There was something to be said about reincarnation and its ability to relax you. One would think that being placed into a completely new, freshly born body of a different species than your original would be daunting, perhaps even terrifying.

However, you don’t really think deeply about it, or really think deeply about much of anything for that matter, until you have developed enough to at least string a decent sentence together, and at that point you really don’t care.

At this point in time, there was no longer a Davis reborn as a pony, instead there was Swiftly Treasured, born with vague dreams and memories of being something else.

And that was how Swiftly preferred to keep it, free of existential dread and drama, just enjoying his life.

That’s not to say that certain things don’t come in handy

His mom and dad always thought it a bit strange how he so quickly learned certain actions, such as self-hygiene, and walking. He had found that being fully aware of some things at a young age could make things a tad awkward.

His understanding of certain things would eventually lead to him being seen as introverted, he would not interact with the other foals at playdates, would only talk in short bursts, and showed very little interest in any of the toys they got him.

These factors, combined with an increasingly absent set of parents as he showed his abilities in autonomy, would lead to what a friend of his parents would call “an unhealthy anti-social streak.”

His parents, while somewhat distant from their now 10-year-old child, wanted only the best for their child. They spoke with him, then spoke with friends, then they spoke with psychologists. It was the finals advice that would lead to his current predicament, sitting at a tall wooden gate of a summer camp, enduring his parents fussing under the stares of all the other ponies around them.

His father sighed when he met his son's grumpy stare after he finished triple checking the large bag the three of them had put together, despite one’s reluctance.

“Come on Swifty, it’s only for a couple of weeks, you stay home all the time, we just figured this would be a funner way to spend it rather than cooped up in the house alone.”

His father, Dark Reverence, usually just Reverence to those who know him, matched his name perfectly in appearance, the most notable feature about him being the sharp, pointed lines of his face that wouldn’t look out of place on a noble straight out of Canterlot. What set him aside was the fact that his father stood a full head above the average pony and had a frame to match, broad shoulders and body that one would expect one a bouncer contrasting with his delicate features. His short, almost military cut mane served to further this contrast, the light purple coloration being one of the things he inherited from him.

His father opened his mouth to say more, but was interrupted when his mother burst forward to hug her child, her small frame still managing to deprive her son of air until the hug ended. Letting go she kept her hooves on his shoulders.

“Treasure, darling, I know you're unhappy, but please, just bear with it for me and your father. We just want you to be as happy as you can be, and Miss Flow says this will be good for you.”

“Val we weren’t supposed to-” Reverence started.

“Sweetheart, you know as well as I do, he already knows, it’s not exactly rune-craft to figure out” She interrupted without looking away from Treasured.

Valerie turned back to her son and brushed her hair out of where it had dropped in front of her eyes during the hug, before carefully doing the same for him.

“I know that you would much rather be at home, I really do, but we, we’re worried, Treasure”

“Mom…”

“It’s just, you’re always at home, either in your room, or in the library, always reading, or writing, or...” She seemed to be tearing up here.

“You always seem to be alone my Treasure”

Whatever Swiftly was going to say vanished into sand at the sight of his mother’s tears.

“Please my Treasure, just try, for us?”

Swiftly glanced to the side, then back, looking his mom in the eyes for a split second before looking away again.

“I’ll… I’ll do my best mom”

“Promise?”

“Yeah, I promise.”

His mom pulled him in for another hug, before jumping away and pulling her husband into one with a gleeful smile, no sign of the previous tears.

“Ahh! You hear that Revy! Our little Treasure is gonna have friends! I can’t wait.” She seemed to be jumping up and down in place, still hugging Reverence and thus pulling him with her.

Reverence turned to look at his son, leaving Valerie to her jubilations.

“I hope you aren’t planning on bribing a couple of colts to act as your friends for a couple of days like last time, it broke your mothers’ heart when she found out that Jet Stream and Cold Front weren’t coming back.”

“I would never do that again, dad.” He fibbed.

“Good, because I’ll personally be keeping track of your allowance”

Well, that plan was sunk at the docks.

“No problem”

“HmmHm” His father nodded knowingly, before turning back to Valerie, who was still chatting away to herself, unaware of the conversation that just took place.

“Val, I think it's time we said goodbye and got going, the counselors are starting to gather the foals.”

His interjection to her celebrations seemed to bring her back to earth, and straight to a tearful goodbye.

Grabbing Swiftly back into a hug his mom gave a slightly less intense more dramatic tearful goodbye, after she let go his dad stepped up, and picking Swiftly straight up off the ground he gave his son the father of all hugs.

“Stay safe, and stay aware. Make us proud and remember the family motto”

“Nemo me impune lacessit” he responded dutifully.

“Which means”

“Leave no slight unanswered”

His father grinned.

“Close enough”

And so, they parted, his parents for parts unknown, wherever they went on their monthly trips, and Swiftly Treasured…

He would spend the next two weeks of his summer as the only Thestral at Rainy Daze’s Summer Camp for Socially Challenged Children.

Author's Note

I figured I post this and see where it goes.