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Description
WARNING: Child Abuse

~~~~~~~~~~

“CHEESE ALFRED SANDWICH!”

An ear-piercing screech rang out through the Sandwich family mansion the next morning, immediately sending all the maids, butlers and servants into high alert for the matriarch’s rage. Anypony who stood in her way even by accident was sure to be met with harsh treatment with the kind of mood she was in, as her many tantrums and the spoiled temperaments of every other Mrs. Sandwich foretold.

But the target of her rage was in for an especially bad time.

“Mother?”

Cheese cowered meekly as she rushed into his room, his heart rate skyrocketing with her every step towards him.

“What’s wrong? What did I do? I—”

“You know what you did!”

Hors D’oeuvres yelled right in his face, so close he could feel the hot air of her anger.

“COME HERE!”

“AGH!”

He cried out as she bit down on his ear, having no choice to follow her gallop up the stairs to alleviate the pain. As he noticed them heading towards his sister’s room, Cheese knew exactly what this was about. He knew exactly what he did. And now it was getting the kind of reaction he should have expected but had been too blinded by his optimism to plan for.

Hors opened the door with a deafening bang and then kicked it shut so hard it almost fell off its hinges, making sure that her victim wouldn’t run away. Then she spit his ear out with pure venom.

“LOOK AT THIS! Look what YOU did!”

The sight before Cheese shattered his heart into pieces.

Instead of standing in all its glory upon its mannequin or its owner, the dress he had worked so hard on was crumpled on the floor in a miserable heap, thrown aside like garbage. Even worse was the sight of Marine, who was sobbing her heart out like this was the worst day of her life. Cheese hoped she would be embracing him in gratitude but instead she was clinging to their father in heartbreak, whimpering in his arms just like she was a little filly again.

Mosaic Sandwich sat with his daughter and patiently stroked her mane, whispering comforting words and rocking her like a foal. In the workplace he was a horrible tyrant, but at home he was a doting husband and affectionate father…to his eldest foal only. When he saw the perpetrator of this crime, who he could hardly call his son, his gaze hardened into one of pure hatred.

“Why!?”

Marine cried out, first as if she was making a plea to the universe, begging for answers on not only the dress but why she had to lead this life in general. Like a dam of pent-up feelings had broken, which she would never let her parents know. But when she caught sight of Cheese, she found what she felt in her emotional state was the catalyst for all this misery.

“WHY!?”

She whipped around viciously, her wet, icy blue eyes cutting into him like daggers.

“Why, Cheese!? WHY DID YOU DO THIS!?”

“I’m sorry!”

Cheese begged for mercy, the urge to cry with her gnawing at his insides, crackling in his voice.

“I-I thought you’d like it! I thought it would make you happy! I didn’t know—“

“HAPPY!?”

His father barked at him like a rabid dog, silencing his pleas.

“You Gaia-damned IMBECILE! You ruined it! A perfectly good dress—which I spent my own hard-earned bits on! Now an abomination! A hideous show of CLOWNERY!”

He gripped Marine in his arms, almost aiming her at Cheese like she was a weapon.

“Look at your sister, she’s devastated! You’re out of your damn mind to think she has such awful taste!”

“Even Marine is not THAT idiotic!”

Hors shrieked her agreement, her words so shrill and so backhooved that even Marine flinched.

Cheese couldn’t take him or his sister being called idiots. It was like their parents didn’t know them at all! Like they didn’t know what he was trying to do, what Marine had been trying to do all along.

“B-but it’s what she wanted!”

He blubbered out, his whole body quivering and his eyes clouded with tears as he tried to make a last-ditch attempt at defending both of them. At appealing to his parents’ better natures…which he so desperately hoped they had.

“She wanted to decorate Cucumber’s cake like this! She told me! She showed me! I was just trying to help her!”

The more Cheese spoke, the more betrayed Marine felt. She told him not to tell! She had tried so hard to fight Mother and Father’s expectations, to cement her own path of creativity, and each time she was met with cold threats that would end in her getting her head bit off if she pushed further. He had seen this. Yet he had chosen to throw her into the fire anyway. Now he was facing the punishment that she would meet if she stepped out of line, and he was threatening to drag her down with him.

That dress looked so much more like what she dreamed of creating, but it only terrified her more. The dull blue meant keeping Father’s love, Mother’s approval, knowing she wouldn’t be left to fend for herself. The bright colors and abstract patterns were nothing but an omen for the horrible unknown, the danger and chaos that Cheese had now plunged them into.

The furious, accusatory looks both of her parents were giving her now told her all she needed to know.

“Cheese, you LIAR!”

She screamed out, as tearful and desperate as she was angry at his audacity.

“I never said that! I never said ANY of that! You’re so stupid, you thought my dumb drafts actually MEANT something! They DIDN’T! Now you’ve ruined EVERYTHING!”

She collapsed into tears again, and felt the relief and security of her father embracing her once again and her mother’s rage directed away from her.

“I did NOT raise you to LIE to me! Or your Father!”

Hors went right back to reprimanding Cheese.

“B-but I’m not lying!”

Cheese was now sobbing as he tried to make his case with three against one.

“I swear! All I did was—“

“SHUT UP!”

SMACK!

Cheese suddenly felt the sting of his mother’s hoof striking hard across his cheek, and then his whole body jolting as he was pulled up off his hooves.

“THIS! This is what you did!”

He was forced to look at the spectacle once again, Marine crying, the dress thrown on the floor. The neck opening looked like a big, gaping mouth to his blurred vision, opened wide in a silent scream of agony much like he was feeling right now.

His colorful spirit, much like the colors of that dress, is what got him kicked down, tossed aside, rejected by the world he lived in.

“No foal of mine would ever do this! No SANDWICH!”

Cheese heard his father shout as he was thrown back down on the ground, ejected from not only his mother’s grasp but from the family as a whole.

“Get him out of here! Get it out of here!”

Marine cried, echoing her mother’s words from weeks before, referring to both of the saturated rejects before her.

“I don’t want them here anymore!”

And so Cheese was ushered out of Marine’s room and shut into his own for an indefinite grounding. It had been done to him many times before as the sore pimple of the family, but there was something more permanent about this time. His bonds with his parents had always been broken but now he had done irreparable damage to the rest of his family bonds. All because he dared to be himself, to imagine something better.

For that, he was paying the price.

~~~~~~~~~~

Previous: If You Judge A Fish
Next: Devoir

Description
WARNING: Child Abuse

~~~~~~~~~~

“CHEESE ALFRED SANDWICH!”

An ear-piercing screech rang out through the Sandwich family mansion the next morning, immediately sending all the maids, butlers and servants into high alert for the matriarch’s rage. Anypony who stood in her way even by accident was sure to be met with harsh treatment with the kind of mood she was in, as her many tantrums and the spoiled temperaments of every other Mrs. Sandwich foretold.

But the target of her rage was in for an especially bad time.

“Mother?”

Cheese cowered meekly as she rushed into his room, his heart rate skyrocketing with her every step towards him.

“What’s wrong? What did I do? I—”

“You know what you did!”

Hors D’oeuvres yelled right in his face, so close he could feel the hot air of her anger.

“COME HERE!”

“AGH!”

He cried out as she bit down on his ear, having no choice to follow her gallop up the stairs to alleviate the pain. As he noticed them heading towards his sister’s room, Cheese knew exactly what this was about. He knew exactly what he did. And now it was getting the kind of reaction he should have expected but had been too blinded by his optimism to plan for.

Hors opened the door with a deafening bang and then kicked it shut so hard it almost fell off its hinges, making sure that her victim wouldn’t run away. Then she spit his ear out with pure venom.

“LOOK AT THIS! Look what YOU did!”

The sight before Cheese shattered his heart into pieces.

Instead of standing in all its glory upon its mannequin or its owner, the dress he had worked so hard on was crumpled on the floor in a miserable heap, thrown aside like garbage. Even worse was the sight of Marine, who was sobbing her heart out like this was the worst day of her life. Cheese hoped she would be embracing him in gratitude but instead she was clinging to their father in heartbreak, whimpering in his arms just like she was a little filly again.

Mosaic Sandwich sat with his daughter and patiently stroked her mane, whispering comforting words and rocking her like a foal. In the workplace he was a horrible tyrant, but at home he was a doting husband and affectionate father…to his eldest foal only. When he saw the perpetrator of this crime, who he could hardly call his son, his gaze hardened into one of pure hatred.

“Why!?”

Marine cried out, first as if she was making a plea to the universe, begging for answers on not only the dress but why she had to lead this life in general. Like a dam of pent-up feelings had broken, which she would never let her parents know. But when she caught sight of Cheese, she found what she felt in her emotional state was the catalyst for all this misery.

“WHY!?”

She whipped around viciously, her wet, icy blue eyes cutting into him like daggers.

“Why, Cheese!? WHY DID YOU DO THIS!?”

“I’m sorry!”

Cheese begged for mercy, the urge to cry with her gnawing at his insides, crackling in his voice.

“I-I thought you’d like it! I thought it would make you happy! I didn’t know—“

“HAPPY!?”

His father barked at him like a rabid dog, silencing his pleas.

“You Gaia-damned IMBECILE! You ruined it! A perfectly good dress—which I spent my own hard-earned bits on! Now an abomination! A hideous show of CLOWNERY!”

He gripped Marine in his arms, almost aiming her at Cheese like she was a weapon.

“Look at your sister, she’s devastated! You’re out of your damn mind to think she has such awful taste!”

“Even Marine is not THAT idiotic!”

Hors shrieked her agreement, her words so shrill and so backhooved that even Marine flinched.

Cheese couldn’t take him or his sister being called idiots. It was like their parents didn’t know them at all! Like they didn’t know what he was trying to do, what Marine had been trying to do all along.

“B-but it’s what she wanted!”

He blubbered out, his whole body quivering and his eyes clouded with tears as he tried to make a last-ditch attempt at defending both of them. At appealing to his parents’ better natures…which he so desperately hoped they had.

“She wanted to decorate Cucumber’s cake like this! She told me! She showed me! I was just trying to help her!”

The more Cheese spoke, the more betrayed Marine felt. She told him not to tell! She had tried so hard to fight Mother and Father’s expectations, to cement her own path of creativity, and each time she was met with cold threats that would end in her getting her head bit off if she pushed further. He had seen this. Yet he had chosen to throw her into the fire anyway. Now he was facing the punishment that she would meet if she stepped out of line, and he was threatening to drag her down with him.

That dress looked so much more like what she dreamed of creating, but it only terrified her more. The dull blue meant keeping Father’s love, Mother’s approval, knowing she wouldn’t be left to fend for herself. The bright colors and abstract patterns were nothing but an omen for the horrible unknown, the danger and chaos that Cheese had now plunged them into.

The furious, accusatory looks both of her parents were giving her now told her all she needed to know.

“Cheese, you LIAR!”

She screamed out, as tearful and desperate as she was angry at his audacity.

“I never said that! I never said ANY of that! You’re so stupid, you thought my dumb drafts actually MEANT something! They DIDN’T! Now you’ve ruined EVERYTHING!”

She collapsed into tears again, and felt the relief and security of her father embracing her once again and her mother’s rage directed away from her.

“I did NOT raise you to LIE to me! Or your Father!”

Hors went right back to reprimanding Cheese.

“B-but I’m not lying!”

Cheese was now sobbing as he tried to make his case with three against one.

“I swear! All I did was—“

“SHUT UP!”

SMACK!

Cheese suddenly felt the sting of his mother’s hoof striking hard across his cheek, and then his whole body jolting as he was pulled up off his hooves.

“THIS! This is what you did!”

He was forced to look at the spectacle once again, Marine crying, the dress thrown on the floor. The neck opening looked like a big, gaping mouth to his blurred vision, opened wide in a silent scream of agony much like he was feeling right now.

His colorful spirit, much like the colors of that dress, is what got him kicked down, tossed aside, rejected by the world he lived in.

“No foal of mine would ever do this! No SANDWICH!”

Cheese heard his father shout as he was thrown back down on the ground, ejected from not only his mother’s grasp but from the family as a whole.

“Get him out of here! Get it out of here!”

Marine cried, echoing her mother’s words from weeks before, referring to both of the saturated rejects before her.

“I don’t want them here anymore!”

And so Cheese was ushered out of Marine’s room and shut into his own for an indefinite grounding. It had been done to him many times before as the sore pimple of the family, but there was something more permanent about this time. His bonds with his parents had always been broken but now he had done irreparable damage to the rest of his family bonds. All because he dared to be himself, to imagine something better.

For that, he was paying the price.

~~~~~~~~~~

Previous: If You Judge A Fish
Next: Devoir