Time ticked away silently in the dark bedroom. Occupying it's space on the large mattress was a wolf and two alicorns.
The sniffles from their previous discussion had died down and now they laid huddled together, the small lavender mare nestled in between her lovers, giving off little hums of comfort.
As Twilight laid, she gently stroked Silvers head as it lay on her hoof, his muzzle brushing against her breast. She ran her hoof down the top and along the back of his neck, occasionally tickling his folded ears to receive a chuckle from him before he flickered them. She didn't know why, but it put her at ease for some reason.
Beside Twilight laid Luna with her wing folded over the smaller mares back and her head resting on her shoulder. Every once in a while, she would lean over and peck Twilight or Silver, or both, a small smile spreading across her lips as she did. The grin was infectious as the other two found themselves smiling as well.
Silver laid on the other side of Twilight, his head resting on her hoof. Her coat tickled his nose with every breath, but allowed him to take in her scent as well. The lingering smell of jasmine filled his snout, even though she hadn't even showered yet.
Her gentle strokes atop his head lulled him into a half-sleeping state. Part of him wanted to give in and pass out, but another part fought to enjoy the peaceful petting.
And for the moment, all was right once more.
Twilight allowed her hoof to drift some until it hit the collar. Thinking back, it was somewhat silly to get so upset before, something which all of them were guilty of. Luna had already admitted to over-reacting, but after being loathed for a thousand years by the nation she once ruled and loved, it was rather reasonable for her to have trust and abandonment issues.
Twilight herself realized that the situation could have been resolved much faster had she just spoken up sooner. She couldn't help but think that perhaps she should have been the one to go get Luna instead of Silver. Maybe things wouldn't have escalated so far.
And then there's Silver himself. While he certainly did make a mistake, it was a small one. One that could have been easily forgiven, however, when he decided to make it seem like a bigger issue than it was, things got out of hoof.
Yes, they all certainly played their own roles in this ridiculous debacle, but luckily things are patching themselves up. They'll wake up in the morning, bundled up together like nothing ever happened. Twilight knew for certain that she would bury herself between them tonight. She could imagine, Silvers thick, luscious fur warming her front while Luna had her cool hooves wrapped around her stomach, keeping her back chi--
Twilights hoof ran across Silvers fur once more. Something felt off....
Flicking on the light with her magic, she aroused a groan and flinch from the wolf she was petting. Studying the fur, she noticed patches of it were singed and there was little flecks of dried blood around his stitches.
“Silver, what did you do to yourself?” She asked, inspecting her wolf-friends body.
“Huh?” he questioned, turning his head back to see, “What are you talking about?”
Judging by his voice, Silver was very nearly asleep before Twilight had flicked on the light, which only served to make him speak in his 'sexy sleepy tone'.
Of course, such things would never distract Twilight from her examination, “Look!” she exclaimed, running a hoof over a patch of burned fur, once again making him wince, “Your fur is singed and you're wounds are—well, were bleeding. What did you do to yourself?”
A small nervous chuckle came from Twilights side, though it wasn't from the wolf.
“Uh...” Luna began, avoiding eye contact from her marefriend, “That uh....that wasn't exactly Silvers fault...”
Twilight only raised a brow in response.
“I um, while I was upset, I may have kinda hit Silver with magic lightning...” she explained, rubbing a hoof behind her head.
“You what?!” Twilight exclaimed, “Luna he's seriously injured! What were you thinking!?”
“I wasn't!” she defended, “I know! It was stupid and I was over-reacting and I'm sorry!...again....”
The lavender mare quickly realized the weight of her words and hung her head. Just when the yelling had died down, she'd went and started it again, “It's...” she sighed, her voice considerably softer than it was before, “Well, it's not exactly okay. I think you re-opened some of his wounds a little, and it looks like whatever herbs Star Shine soaked the stitches in lost their effect as well. But it could be worse.”
“'M sorry...” the midnight mare mumbled again, fiddling with the blanket.
Well now Twilight just felt bad. Leaning over, she gave the self-berating mare a kiss and nuzzle, “It's okay. I know you didn't mean to hurt him.”
Silver had shuffled over and was now laying under Luna's chin. His turned her head to look down at him, giving her a quick smooch too, “Don't worry about it,” he said with a grin, “Star Shine can patch me up again. Besides, I kinda had it coming.”
Luna playfully rolled her eyes with a smile. Such a silly wolf.
However, this new position he was in allowed her to get a closer look at his condition.
“Silver, you're covered in filth,” she noted, leaning down to whiff him, only to reel back moments later, “And you stink too.”
Silver raised a paw and sniffed himself, “Huh, guess I do,” he concluded before turning back to Luna, “But then again, you're not one to talk.”
Luna cocked her head in confusion, and the wolf pointed a paw at her chest, “You're covered in blood.”
Luna's eyes went wide as she quickly sat up and examined herself. Sure enough, there was dried blood staining her coat.
“What? Where did this...?” she began, only to recall that she laid on the wolfs chest for some time after shocking him, “Oh, right. Well this won't do.”
Twilight sighed again, “Honestly, you two...”
“Twilight you have blood on you too,” Silver pointed out.
The mare's head whipped around as she checked herself, and there it was, “Aw....” she groaned. There wasn't as much as there was on Luna, but on the same side Silver had laid against, there were little crimson patches dying her coat.
“Oh well,” Twilight said as she shuffled off the bed, pausing to stretch a moment, “We haven't showered yet anyways so, might as well.”
And so, the three head off to the bathroom.
Needless to say, they got a little dirty while getting clean.
In hindsight, perhaps having sex with an injured and exhausted wolf in a shower wasn't exactly the best of ideas. Silver rubbed the bump on his head as he trotted through the hall and to the kitchen. Stupid slippery tile floors, being all...slippery!
Luna and Twilight had left before him, going to bed as the smaller of the two was practically sleepwalking.
As he crossed the kitchen, his eyes spotted a small shimmer coming from the counter. Turning to look, Silver found it was the collar Onyx had given.
He couldn't help but groan to himself. He'd completely forgotten about explaining everything to the mare.
For a moment, he thought about just leaving it until tomorrow night, when he wasn't so tired. Then his mind flashed back to Rainbow Dash. Had he just spoken to her like he was supposed to before he got injured, then the yelling, the crying, the pain, both physical and emotional; all of it could have been avoided. Had he just said something sooner.
Silver had made many mistakes in his life, and he had many more to make. But that being said, he was never one to make the same mistake twice.
The wolf snagged the collar off the counter and put it on. He turned and headed down the hall to Onyx's room, pausing just before he went to knock.
“How late is it? I know she's a bit of a night owl, but surely she can't still be awake.”
Figuring it would be best not to wake the mare up, Silver concluded that the nearest time for him to talk with her would be tomorrow, and he would do it no later.
Turning back to go to the kitchen, Silver only got a few steps away before something caught his attention. Something was off about that door. He didn't know why he noticed it, and in truth it was something he never really thought about before. But what bugged him even more was why it was occurring in the first place.
Turning around once more, Silver planted himself in front of Onyx's bedroom. For a moment, he sat there and stared at the wood, analyzing all that he could.
After a minute, he bent down and placed his nose next to the crack of the door. Sure enough, there was no scent coming through.
What made it odd was that since it was Onyx's room, her scent should be pouring out of it. She'd slept in there for a few months now, but there wasn't a trace of her scent to be found. It was just blank.
As Silver sat with his nose to the door, he realized something else off. No air had been passing through the gap either. In truth, it wasn't something he paid attention to...ever. The fact that he even noticed it this time was profound. But he still wondered why he couldn't feel the air from crack. The air conditioning was still running, so he should feel something.
At first, he thought the mare in the bedroom may have been suffocating. That maybe someone had found an Air-locking spell similar to his own and cast it on her room. But once he realized he could sense the air still moving inside the room, he knew she was still breathing.
So the air wasn't spelled, and with the A.C on, there should be something flowing through the crack, be it smell or breeze.
And yet there wasn't.
Silver decided it was time to stop playing detective and stood back up. Silently apologizing for invading her privacy, he slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open as quietly as possible, slipping into her room and shutting the door behind him.
However, what he found inside was....concerning.
“What the hell?....”
The room had been trashed completely. Her vanity laid on the floor, the mirror shattered into pieces and the draws scattered across the room, the contents of them only magnifying the mess. Her works of jewelry had been snapped and broken before being tossed onto the carpet. Papers had been strewn about, some with sketches on them, others that looked something akin to homework.
But what caused Silver so much concern was the shattered glass jutting out of the floor, not just from the mirror, but from bottles. The labels of Red Stag, Jack Daniels, Devils Cut and Jameson littered the carpet, and all in all Silver counted six. There were only a few wet spots from what little remained of the liquor inside, and even then the spots weren't very big. She must have drank all of them.
Recounting his stash of booze, Silver recalled that out of all the bottles, the fullest one was already about half empty. The rest had little left in them, but then again, if she was drinking straight whiskey, she wouldn't need much to get drunk. Half a bottle would be plenty, the rest would just be bonuses.
Silver sighed as he looked around the room, a noticeable portion of his liquor cabinet laying on the floor.
“Why do all of the mares in this house handle their issues with alcohol? Well, except for Luna.”
Silver moved carefully across the floor to avoid adding on to the cuts he already had. On the bed, snoring loudly and cradling yet another bottle of whiskey, was Onyx. There were clear tear marks down her cheeks, and as expected, she reeked of alcohol. Even as she slept drunk, there was still a clear discomfort written on her face. Her mane was no longer in it's signature braided ponytail, but was laid sprawled across the pillows in locks of black silk. Silver had to admit that even drunk, drooling and snoring, she was a stunning young mare.
As he watched her dream, he wondered what pushed over the edge. He'd always found Onyx to be a calm and collected mare, her emotions rarely getting the best of her and even when they did, she quickly got them under control again. But to drown herself in whiskey? For her to completely blow her lid and trash everything in sight? It seemed like something Ruppy would do, no offense to the mare.
Speaking of which, why didn't anypony say anything? Surely, someone must have heard the vanity crash. Even if it happened while Silver was chasing down Luna, Twilight had been home all night. It would have been impossible not to hear, unless she was in the basement.
The wolf sighed and hung his head. There were a thousand worries running through his head, each one coming to a different conclusion. He considered asking Luna for help, but figuring it would be better not to invade the mares privacy more so than he already had, he decided it would be best to just ask Onyx himself.
Taking another look around the room, Silver set out to clean the room a little before heading to bed. She was passed out, so the likelihood of her waking up anytime soon was slim.
Silver turned and began sweeping up some of the glass into a pile with his wind. The tinkling of the shards made for a delightful make-shift melody, and he soon found himself humming a tune. As Silver slowly cleared the floor of glass, his eyes caught the writing of one of the scattered papers.
His first thought was too ignore it. Once again, he simply wanted to respect her privacy. Unfortunately, his mind had already processed the words sprawled onto the top of the paper. Two very important words.
Dear Dad...
Part of him still wanted to just leave it alone, to collect the rest of the papers, stack them and continue cleaning for a little longer. But that ever-persistent voice of curiosity was far louder than anything else at that moment.
Picking the paper up, Silver unfolded it and began to read.
“Dear Dad, or Mom,”
….That was it....
Just the one line.
Silver stared at the paper for a while longer. For a moment, he thought it was meant for himself, or Twilight or Luna. But if it were, then why say Dad and Mom? Onyx calls them Papa and Mamas. Looking around the room, he found several other papers just like it. Unlike this one, these had a few lines written on each, but all of them had been scratched out. Yet they still had those same four words at the top.
A thought did cross his mind.
“Did...did she mean--”
Silver froze as he felt a pair of eyes fall on him, and as there was only one other pony in the room, there was no effort to uncover who it was that was looking at him. Though something about this stare felt...off.
For a fraction of a moment, there was panic and hostility, but that seemed to slip away at some point, and they soon felt shocked, but...scared more than anything.
Slowly, he turned and faced the bed, only to find Onyx in the same position as she was before, sound “asleep.”
Unfortunately for her, she hadn't learned yet that when you're asleep, your breathing changes, so her attempt to fake sleeping would have been ruined even if he didn't feel her gaze on her. Sighing, Silver let the paper fall and stepped over to the bed.
Poking her cheek gently with his muzzle, he leaned close and whispered, “Onyx, I know you're awake.”
The mare continued her acting. She was pretty good too. Her body didn't move an inch, and her snoring hadn't even stopped yet. Maybe she finally accepted that she does snore.
“Onyx, come on,” he tried again, “You can't trick me, I can you're awake from your breathing.”
For a moment, she continued to lay unmoving, until finally, she creaked an eye open, then the other. She didn't look directly at the wolf, instead choosing to look at the blanket and bottle of booze in her hooves. Her eyes were clearly bloodshot, either from crying, the alcohol or both. They lost the glint of joy they'd so recently gotten back after the streets beat it out of them. Now they sat dull, almost colorless, but worse of all, numb. The mare was empty inside.
…Again...
Sighing once more, Silver sat down in front of her, lowering his head to eye level.
“Onyx, sweetie, what happened in here?” he asked, only to be met with silence. He pondered for a moment, trying to decipher what issues plagued the mares mind. Thinking back to the papers, Silver tried again, “Is...is it about your birth parents?” he asked a gently as he could.
He saw her clutch the bottle a little tighter, but she shook her head, her loose mane bouncing as she did.
“Is it about your studies with Twilight?”
Another shake.
“Is it something somepony did?”
Shake.
Silver fell silent. He'd run out of ideas. Surely, there were a thousand things that could be bothering her, but he had no clue of knowing which, and certainly couldn't list them all off. But not knowing only tore him apart even more. Here he sat with a mare that he saw as his own daughter laying on the bed, drinking herself into depression and he had no idea what was hurting her or how to fix it.
And for the second time that night, Silver felt like a failure, and in more ways than one at that. First as a wolf-friend and now a parent.
What a useless little dog.
Silvers head fell forward, burying his face into the blankets. The two sat like that for a while, neither speaking nor moving.
After some time passed, the wolf began to feel his eyelids grow heavy, the exhaustion taking over once more. He needed to get to bed. But he couldn't just leave Onyx here alone either, not while she's like this. He pondered taking her back with him, but that would mean telling Twilight and Luna about her room and he didn't have the energy for that.
He could stay in here, but he felt a little invasive already, and--
“--...ry....,”
It was less than a whisper, almost silent really, and followed by a touch. A gentle hoof ran over his neck, running over the collar.
Silver lifted his head, “What?”
Again, she didn't say anything, but her hoof remained on the gift she gave him. The wolf looked down to the collar and smiled gently, “I meant what I said earlier, you know. I really do love it. It means the world to me, and I got it from one of my little fillies, so--”
“I'm sorry...”
This time, the words rang clear, but still soft. They were words the wolf had heard enough of for one night. So many apologies have come from so many already, and he just wanted it to stop.
But she didn't.
“It's...it's my fault. I didn't think. I just did something stupid and I made Luna and Twilight angry and she stormed out an-and--”
“Shhh.....” he shushed, placing a paw over her mouth, his smile never fading. For the first time that night, her eyes had actually met with Silvers, though he'd wished they hadn't been filled with tears. At least he finally found out what she was upset over.
“Did...did you overhear us earlier?”
Just as quickly as she made eye contact, she broke it again with that question, though she did respond with a nod, “I was out on the porch. I-I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but.... it was just the shouting I heard though...”
Silver sighed. Of course she only heard the shouting. Luna had lost it by the time she was heading to leave and stopped shouting by then. Onyx wouldn't have been able to hear what she said before she left.
“Silly filly, what happened wasn't your fault,” he comforted, picking up her head by the chin, “Your Papa...well, I kinda screwed up. I kissed another mare, aside from Twilight and Luna, and they were upset. But trust me when I say, Luna storming out was not your fault by any means.”
“B-but it was!” she cried, “Even if she didn't leave because of the collar, she wouldn't have been nearly as angry if I hadn't given it to you in the first place! She would have stayed!”
Onyx quickly snatched the collar off of his neck, holding it high about her head and was about to hurl it across the room before a paw caught her hoof.
“Onyx, don't,” he said sweetly, “I'd hate to see you break your hard work.”
“It's not hard work! It's just trouble! It's gonna drive us apart! I'll drive us apart!”
“What?” Silver actually recoiled at the outburst, causing the mares hoof to fall forward. Luckily, she'd let it crash down onto the bed without throwing the collar across the room, “What are you talking about?”
“Why do you think I don't have parents!? Why do you think I was abandon on the street!? All I ever do is cause trouble! I made their lives miserable and they got rid of me! I did it to them and I'll do it again! I'll just drive everyone away somehow! It's my fault I don't have a family!”
“Wha--?”
“I'm dead weight, Silver! I slow everyone down, and when I'm not, I'm busy being a freak and hacking ponies to pieces! I'm just a hassle to take care off! I don't have a family and I never will!”
“Knock it off!” For the first time that night, Silver actually raised his voice, making Onyx go stiff, “'Drive everyone away'? 'Cause trouble'? You honestly believe that? That you don't have a family?”
“I don't!”
“Then what about me!? What about Ruppy, or Twilight, or Luna? Do you call me Papa for fun, or do you really think I don't think of you as my daughter? As my family.”
“I-i..it--”
“Family is never just blood, Onyx. It's whoever you decide it to be. So tell me, do you want to be a family?”
The little coal mare looked up. It was an odd question, that's for certain. Or at least, to anyone else it would be. But for this mare, it was the one thing she craved more than anything.
She gazed into Silvers eyes. They had a scowl on them, though it wasn't out of annoyance or anything of the like, but rather determination, and maybe a hint of hope. They were firm yet gentle, soothing yet fierce. Warm like a summers day or the silent, tranquil night.
They were the eyes of a father.
“Please....” she choked out, “Papa....I don't wanna be alone anymore...”
“Shhh...” he shushed once more, his scowling softening back into his gentle smile while his arms brought her into a hug, “You were never alone, sweetie. You just didn't know what you had.”
“I-I wanna be a family. Please....please...”
Silver felt her shake and shiver, though not out of fear. It was a tension leaving her body, a weight lifted from her shoulders, “Of course, sweetie,” he cooed gently, placing a kiss atop her head, “We're family. Always and forever.”
The two stayed together for a while. Silver wasn't sure how long, nor did he care. He didn't leave her side until he was certain she was calm.
That sign came in the form of the mares snoring in his chest.
“Well, she did drink half of my liquor cabinet.”
Gently placing her back down onto the bed, Silver removed the bottle that still laid wrapped up in the bed sheets before tucking her in. She didn't wake, thankfully, and neither did anypony else.
Examining the room, he still thought it odd that nobody would hear the ruckus, but the exhaustion from the night made him too tired to care about trying to figure it out.
Silver sighed and picked up the collar before heading to the door. The glass had been mostly swept up earlier, so he could leave the rest of the cleaning for in the morning. As he left the room, he clicked the door shut behind him, only to find it didn't actually click.
A quick thought of a sound-proofing spell crossed his mind, but again, his tiredness wiped it out. For the brief moment it existed though, it did make sense. Onyx was a unicorn after all. He wasn't sure how difficult a sound-proofing spell would be, but that doesn't change the fact that he knew one still existed. And while she had no formal education in magic, she was still able to use the swords he made for her with relative ease, so the idea that she could learn a spell like that isn't exactly unreasonable. But there was still something missing
But a sleepy Silver was not a thinky Silver.
No, sleepy Silver was sleepy. And so he shuffled down the hall to his room. The shadowed forms of his mares in bed could barely be made out. He set the collar on the nightstand and crawled under the sheets, wrapping his paws around the first body he found. Her smell told him it was Twilight.
She shifted around a bit to accommodate for the new set of limbs, stirring her from her slumber.
“Silver?” she wearily whispered, “Are you just now getting into bed?”
“Yeah,” he answered, his own weariness matching hers, “Sorry.....had to...with Onyx....tell you in the mmmornnnggg...”
And with that, he was out. Twilight considered waking him back up to ask, but figuring that since it has already been a long night, she decided to just let the wolf sleep.
That, and she was already falling asleep again too.