Chapter 34:
Flower's Autistic Struggles and Thunder's Epically Huge Secret
That weekend, Flower, Pink, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Lucky, Thunder, and Lightning were all together on the farm after Lucky got out of the office. Applejack and Rainbow were there too. Big Mac, Cheerilee, and Granny were also there, watching the fillies. They all agreed with Applejack that they would be cautious of Flower's Autism. Thunder hasn't ever felt this joy of playing before, neither has Lightning, not before Lucky Fire. The fillies were all frolicking in the orchards, playing hide and seek. When Thunder was seeker, she found Flower, Pink, and Lightning already, she still had to find the others. Thunder went to find Lucky next, she found her, of course. When they were running to the home base, Thunder tripped over her own four hooves. She had hurt her left foreleg. "Oww..." Lucky, who can feel that Thunder's hurting because of Lucky's psychic powers, goes over to her.
"You ok Thunder?" Thunder hid her left foreleg from Lucky, holding it so that Lucky doesn't see what's on the one part of her foreleg. Lucky raised an eyebrow. "Ooook... well, how about we go and find something else to do?", she asked, turning her back to Thunder. "Ok." Thunder stood up, Lucky walked a bit, knowing Thunder will follow, and when Thunder did follow, Lucky used her magic to see what Thunder was hiding from her, bringing Thunder in front of her and holding the part of the foreleg Thunder was trying to hide from her face her. She saw the scars. "Thunder... what's this?" Thunder looked away, pissed. "Nothing, just scars from different times when I would play." Lucky shook her head, "No they aren't. I can tell you're lying. I'm psychic, remember?" Thunder knew she was cornered now, she had indeed forgotten Lucky was psychic.
"Mama, ma, Cheerilee, Big Mac, Granny, you guys better get over here. Thunder... well, I'm concerned!" The adults come over. "Lucky, what's wro... Thunder!", Cheerilee started to ask, then saw the scars. The other fillies came over too, Lightning hovered, and saw the scars. "Oh Thunder..." Lucky looked at Lightning. "You never seen these scars before?" Lightning shook her head. "Thunder...", Rainbow said. "What? If you'd have lived in the situation Lightning and I did, you probably would have at least considered doing this." Applejack tilted her head. "It's confidential ma. Nopony but her, Lightning, and I can know. Sorry, but Thunder's request." Applejack nodded, "Princess business?" Lucky smiled and nodded once. "Well, alright, but Thunder, ya need ta get help. Ya need some counselin'. Ya can't be cuttin' like this. It ain't healthy." Thunder looked away. "What's counseling and what's cutting usually meant for?", Lucky asked. Applejack explained.
"Oh, hmm, well, maybe I could give you counseling Thunder. We would meet once a week. We'd have to schedule a best time for you and I." Thunder raised an eyebrow at Lucky. "I don't need counseling. I'll be perfectly fine little Princess." Lucky raised an eyebrow at her. "I don't think so Thunder, you need help, like ma said, and just like I helped you with your situation, let me help you stop the cutting." Thunder didn't look happy, but she reluctantly agreed. Lucky smiled. "Thank you Thunder for agreeing. Trust me, you'll be much happier and you'll be much better off not cutting. Besides, you do have friends who care about you, your sister cares about you, we will miss you if you do end up dying from this, do you want to make us sad?" Thunder looked down, thinking. Eventually she said, slowly. "Well... no, I guess not."
"You guess? That makes it sound like you're not sure of it. Think some more, let me know when you are sure and we'll go in my old room in the farm house to talk privately and confidentially." Thunder just nodded. "Now, let's get back to playing." The others agreed, then they got back to playing, not being loud, they're being considerate of Flower's Autism. At noon, Applejack called the foals in for lunch, doing the normal thing, ringing the triangle and calling out, "Soup's on everypony!" Flower, unfortunately, was really close to that. Applejack noticed a little too late. Flower had gotten down on the ground, covered her ears after flattening them, curled up in a ball, then started rocking. Lucky and the other foals except Pink looked at Applejack questioningly. Applejack shrugged. "Flower's doing that because of her Autism. The loud ringing of the triangle plus Applejack calling out soup's on, that hurt her ears and it was unfortunate for her to have been so close.", Pink explained.
"Oops. Sorry Flower.", Applejack said. Flower didn't hear her, nor acknowledge what she said. Lucky went over to her and laid down next to her. Lucky gets thinking and after a while, she gets something. Lucky starts singing softly, this is what her mama used to do whenever she'd get nightmares. Lucky then started gently stroking Flower's mane too. That always calmed her down from a nightmare too. After a little while, Flower started to calm down. Lucky smiled, kept on with what she was doing. Applejack and the others were impressed. Eventually Flower became calm again. She looked at Lucky, ears perking up. "Thanks Lucky. That actually worked. Mom and dad never were able to find a way to calm me down. I'll have to tell them what you did worked. How did you even think of doing that anyway?" Lucky smiled gently, "My mama used to do that whenever I had nightmares. Ma and mama both do that too." Flower smiled, "Glad you thought of that." Lucky nodded.
"So, how about we get lunch now?" Lucky stood up, offered a hoof to Flower, who accepted the help and stood up. The foals all went into the farmhouse. "Sorry 'bout that Flower. Ah realized too late that you were kinda close to the triangle 'n me. Ah'm used ta doin' that like that, not quietly." Flower only nodded. After lunch, the foals continued to play. "Lucky, when you did what you did when you calmed me down, you kind of were like a mother at that point.", Flower said. Lucky blushed. Pink, Lightning, Sweetie, and Apple Bloom giggled. Thunder, Scootaloo, and Applejack chuckled. "She sure tells what she thinks whenever she thinks it, don't she?", Apple Bloom said. Flower blushed lightly. "Not all the time. Most times I have no idea how to express what I want, so that leads into a tantrum kind of." Scootaloo asked, "What was that earlier? When Applejack rang the triangle." Flower smiled sheepishly, "That was kind of a meltdown." Sweetie then said, "That was a meltdown? That wasn't really that bad, so your tantrums can't be all bad either."
"Trust me when I say, they are. Mom and dad can't control me when I have a tantrum, of course, if they ask what's wrong, that leads me to get worse, much worse. Don't ask why, it's just part of the Autism." Everypony nodded. So, when Applejack needed help, some of it was complicated. Flower had a hard time understanding and that frustrated her to no end. Here we go. She started to cry out of anger. Lucky and the other foals looked at each other. Flower bucked the ground. Applejack ordered Lucky to go to Black Rose. Lucky nodded, then flew off to the direction of Flower's house, and fast too. When she got there, she knocked on the door. A minute later Sunflower opened the door. "Flower's having a tantrum, what do we do?" Sunflower bit his lip. "Just wait it out, she'll calm down eventually." Lucky lowered her head, "I had a feeling you'd say that. Alright, we'll do that, and I'll let the others know." Sunflower nodded. Lucky dashed off back to the farm.
When she got there, Flower was still ticked. "Just let her go, she'll calm down eventually." The others nodded. Eventually she did. Flower blushed heavily, then went to a dark corner. Everypony else tilted their heads. "What's up Flower?", Scootaloo asked. Flower shook her head fast and laid down, covering her head with her hooves. "She's embarrassed.", Lucky said. "Oh, ok. I don't blame her though, if I were the same way, if I had Autism and had a tantrum in front of my friends, I would be embarrassed too.", Scootaloo said. Apple Bloom cuffed her. "Ow! What was that for?" Apple Bloom gave her a look, "Don't say that Scootaloo, it ain't nice." Flower, who's face was being hidden, smiled of amusement. Lucky chuckled at the two, then said, "Thunder, how about we actually start your counseling now?" Thunder groaned, but obliged. So Lucky took Thunder to the farm house and up in her old room. The other foals continued playing.
"So, Thunder, why cut?" Thunder looked away. Lucky got a stern voice, "Thunder." Thunder looked back at Lucky with an angry face, "Because of my crappy parents. What they did, said, it got me to thinking the same thing they told me. That nopony wants me, that I'm no good, that I'm not meant for this world. I stuck up for my twin, who they said the same things, because I stuck up for her, she knew she had somepony on her side, somepony who thought different. That's why she's so happy all the time. Me, well, Lightning was afraid to stand up to them, unlike me. I knew she wanted to, but I still didn't think anypony would even care for me. I didn't think I was supposed to live. My life sucked, I dreaded going home, and my life has just been a living Tartaros."
"Will ya stop with the swearin'? Good golly." Lucky blushed at saying, 'good golly'. Thunder chuckled. "Sorry Country Princess." Lucky gave Thunder a look, which only made Thunder laugh harder. "This is the first time I ever laughed like this. You know Princess, you're an alright filly. I'm glad I gave you a second chance... glad... something I never thought I ever would feel. Nor joy, nor happiness. Ever since I gave you a second chance, all I ever felt was joy and happiness. Y'know kid, you really change a pony's life." Lucky smiled, happy to hear that. Then she hugged Thunder, who just sat there awkwardly. "Glad I could help, and besides, it's my job to help, so saying, I love my job. Even if I'm not actually at work being the Princess, doesn't mean I can stop helping ponies. I still help ponies 24/7.
"So, now that you gave the reason, how does that make you feel? Does it make you feel better getting it off your chest like that?" Thunder thought, then after a bit, "Yeah, I guess it did take a load off. Well, how will you go about helping me stop cutting?" Lucky grinned, "Simple. Let the pony at the orphanage know about it so she can keep sharp things away from you, and continue to show that ponies do care about you and would miss you if you ever did die from that. As I said earlier, us foals who are here at the farm now, Granny, Cheerilee, Uncle Mac, ma, the foals at the orphanage, the adults at the orphanage, and that's a lot of ponies. If my Aunts were to meet you, and even the Canterlot Princesses and Stella, they'd miss you too. Even my classmates... except Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They're bullies... but, let's just call this meeting finished and go play again."
Thunder agreed and they went out to the others. So the rest of the day went much better for the foals. At the end of the day, Lucky got into bed, happy she was able to help Thunder with her issue for now and Flower the first time she had a meltdown. A mother Flower said... not likely. Thunder, she would need many more sessions until Lucky thought her better enough to not cut again.
A/N: wow, first short chapter in like, all the story. 3 pages, as the others are usually 6 to 7 pages. XD