//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Ouranios // by Amadeus //------------------------------// Chapter 3 The sun shone brightly over the land of Equestria one early spring morning. Its rays of life giving warmth cast themselves upon the land as the earth woke from the long sleep of winter. Most of the snow had already melted but a few spots still lingered, tucked into the many crevices of the valley floor. The farm that Gold Rush and Lavender Breeze shared was busy this morning as farms are come springtime. One could find Gold Rush out in the fields cultivating the land in neat little rows, preparing it for the seed to come. The harness of the plow strapped tight around his massive tan frame, his muscles taunt as he dragged the blade through the dirt, breaking the terrain as he went along. Meanwhile, Lavender Breeze could be found in her garden pruning one of her rose bushes. She would stare at each cane of the plant, looking it over for any signs of disease or irregularities. If it passed her scrutinizing eyes she would slowly move on to the next one, if not it would receive a snip from her special sheers and discarded into her waste bucket. She continued on in an almost meditative fashion for what seemed like hours, going from plant to plant. Even though it was a fairly cool day, Lavender still found herself working up a little bit of a sweat as the sun shone down on her. She pushed the straw sunhat off of her head, letting if fall across her back, the stampede string now snug against her neck. Closing her eyes she took a hoof and wiped the offending perspiration dripping from her forehead as she tilted her head back to relish in the familiar warmth of the burning orb in the sky. She sat there for a moment welcoming the feeling of warmth through closed eyelids, even as a shadow from a passing cloud separated her from the rays. Expecting the cloud to soon pass so as to allow her to get back to her sun worshiping; she was surprised when it lingered longer than she would have liked it to. Furrowing her brow in irritation she slowly opened her eyes, lest if the sun did come back she would not be blinded by its fury. To take a look at this object that dared to ruin her good mood. Settled above her floated a decently sized cumulus cloud, she could see the fluffy rolls of white vapor rolling in on itself in a seemingly endless cycle. From the sides of the cloud she could see the beams of sunlight trying to pierce through its opaque thickness. But what caught her attention the most was a dark shadow on the underside of the cloud, a shadow that was darker than the surrounding grey of the cloud bottom. “Celestia…” Lavender spoke in a cautionary tone to the cloud. The shadow immediately moved to the center of the floating puff, hoping to hide from the lavender colored mare that now sat with her arms crossed. “Celestia, I know tis you up there.” Lavender called again. The shadow crept slowly back to the edge. The first part of Celestia that Lavender glimpsed of was the point of her long white horn, which was soon followed by the wispy pink locks of her mane. As she continued to expose herself, eyes of violet meet eyes of sapphire which seemed to shimmer even in the shadow of the cloud. Celestia swallowed a little in her throat as she gave Lavender a small smile and a nervous chuckle. “Good morrow to thee mother!” Celestia shouted down to the light violet mare while continuing to smile. “Come hither young lady.” Lavender said back in a voice that told Celestia that it was not up for debate. She quickly jumped off the cloud and spread her massive white wings, which worked to slow her descent to a graceful glide; she banked slightly to the left and went into a leisurely spiral. Lavender couldn’t help but notice that her daughter resembled on of the falling leaves that she would find Celestia watching for hours in the fall time. Celestia landed daintily on the ground in front of her mother with a slight bounce in her step as she slowed her momentum to a stop. Lavender had to actually look up to her daughter now, being as the white winged unicorn now stood as tall as her husband Gold Rush, and she was only just now entering the phase of puberty. The lilac mare exhaled in frustration as she thought about how even Luna was as tall as she was now, gone were the little fillies that she used to wrap in her arms. Celestia gave Lavender Breeze another small smile which was met with the same unamused look by the mare. She hung her head low and nervously crossed her front legs, scrapping at the ground absentmindedly. “Did thou pusheth that cloud over me?” Lavender asked the shrinking filly. “Aye mother.” Celestia replied but not daring to look the mare in the eye. “Thou knowest how I feel about thine pranks.” “Aye mother.” Celestia said digging the little trench at her feet deeper. She was surprised however when she was pulled into the embrace of the smaller mare, she could smell the natural flowery scent of her mother mixed in with the smell of her sweat. Celestia didn’t have time to enjoy the relaxing scent before Lavender Breeze began to mercilessly tickle her ribs. The large white filly’s legs gave out from under her and she fell to the ground laughing and gasping for air as the assault continued, her legs bucking in vain defense. “Thou knowest that thou can’t pull pranks on thy own sweet mother.” Lavender said as she to began to giggle. Celestia could barely make out a word as she struggled to answer through her short gasp of air. “-T-t-twas, just tryin-g to snicker p-provide snort y-ye with some shade mother.” Lavender Breeze stopped her tickling suddenly and gave her daughter a warm smile, “I knoweth.” Celestia held a bewildered look as she slowly regained her composure, “W-what?” “Does thou thinkest that thou art the only one who knoweth how to pull a prank on somepony?” Lavender said with a delight in her voice as she sat up and headed back to her flowers, “Now then, where is thy sister; tis unusual to find the two of thee apart?” Celestia slowly walked over and sat next to her mother and picked up a spare set of sheers that were sitting in the bucket that Lavender used to throw her discards in. “She is in the fields helping father.” Lavender gave a small smile. Of course Luna would be with Gold, ever since that first meeting that seemed so long ago, the little blue filly had had the massive stallion wrapped around her hoof. Not that Celestia held any less sway on his heart, but one could always find the two usually together somewhere. He teaching and her sitting captivated in wide-eyed awe. There was one time that they where out past nightfall and Lavender had become so worried at where they could be that she and Celestia went to go search for them. Celestia flew in the air trying to find them while Lavender searched the property grounds. Eventually they found them sitting on top of a grassy hill staring into the night sky. Luna nestled in between his massive front hooves, with wonder written all over her face. She would point out a star and Gold would give a throaty chuckle before telling her it was actually a planet, to which the little filly would gasp in awe that that little speck of light could be a whole other world just like the one she was sitting on. Lavender and Celestia walked up on them slowly so as to not interrupt them but Gold, ever the alert protector, had heard them long ago and just turned his head to them and smiled. It was a content smile that parents have when they are able to share something special with their children. She smiled back at him knowingly, sharing in the moment with him, before Luna pointed to another object in the sky wondering what it could be. They ended up spending most of the night there up on that hill, the children pointing out objects and her husband telling them the grand stories of the creatures of legend that they where named for. She was so caught up in her memories that she didn’t realize that she had stopped pruning the lily plant midway through a cut. It wasn’t until she felt Celestia’s gentle touch on her arm that she was able to knock herself out of her stupor. She turned to her eldest daughter who now held a look of concern on her face, but Lavender just gave her a reassuring pat with her hoof to let her know she was ok. She quickly finished her pruning with Celestia’s help and soon enough she was picking up the waste bucket to go throw its contents onto their composite pile; that was situated on the backside of the barn so as to be easily accessible for when Gold Rush required the nutrient rich mush to renew the fields. But she soon felt the weight of the bucket lift from her back as it was lifted by Celestia’s magic. That was another thing that she had yet to fully get used to, was the ability of her daughters’ to use magic and the skill that they had shown with it even for ones as young as they were. Being as both Gold Rush and herself were earth ponies they had no magic to speak of themselves and had never really known any unicorn families growing up. At first they had tried to teach the two how to get by without using their magic, but one day there was an incident in town were a couple of bullies were trying to intimidate the sisters. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but it did open their eyes to the error in their decision. They knew that they needed to find somepony more experienced than them to help teach Celestia and Luna how to harness their powers, lest they lose control again and hurt somepony. Eventually, they were able to gain the help of a unicorn a couple of towns over who was eager to get the chance to teach a couple of ponies with the abilities of both a pegasi and a unicorn. Unfortunately the name of their teacher eluded her. All she really remembered about the old unicorn was his long white beard and the bells on his cloak, which would jingle as he walked like a sleigh at Hearth’s Warming Eve time. The old unicorn soon praised the two sisters with their ability to grasp the concept of magic, almost like they were born with an innate sense to bend the very element of magic to their will. And then there was their strength in the art. Their abilities allowed them to do things that no other unicorn could do, like their ability to talk with one another over great distances by thought alone. Or like the incident that had happened in town, were the two were able to lift a whole cottage from its foundation by themselves with no experience in using magic and at such a young age. Since then their strength had grown leaps and bounds in the same relation to their physical growth. The duo made their way to the backside of the barn to dispose of their waste, talking idly as they went along. When they had reached the pile Celestia tilted the basket over and poured out the contents onto the mound. Lavender saw her pause for a moment afterwards, the now empty bucket floating in front of her wrapped in her golden aura of magic. It was a habit she knew that they had picked up from her, to show that they where thinking over something. “What bothers thee my daughter?” She asked as she took the bucket from her daughter and headed into the barn to put it and the tools away. “Well mother, on this day I was wondering if we might visit the town to partake in the festival?” Celestia asked with a little more hope in her voice than she meant to let out. “The festival?” Lavender asked a little confused before what Celestia had asked dawned on her. She had forgotten about the annual springtime festival that the village put on every year to celebrate the rebirth of the world. “But thou knowest we have much work to do hither on the farm to ensure that the crops are ready come harvest time.” Celestia lowered her eyes as her mother’s words rang out, the hope of fun now gone. “Aye mother I know.” “But…-“ Celestia raised her eyes back up to look at her mother who was now smiling at her, “-tis no reason why we can’t ask thy father now is there?” Celestia almost leaped to the sky in joy, but settled on a hopping like a little bunny. She rushed over to Lavender and picked up the smaller mare wrapping her in a hug, wings and all. “- Oh grammarcy mother! Grammarcy!” Lavender laughed at her daughter’s sign of affection, even if she was a little sad that her once little filly was now able to lift her up. “Don’t thank me yet, we still have to convince thy father.” Meanwhile out in the pasture Gold Rush was busy trying to remove a particularly stubborn rock from the dirt of a new field he was working on. He stabbed at the dirt with a pole trying to get up under the offending object, so as to be able to move it out of the way. “Good morrow father.-” He heard a voice from behind him say that rang in his ear like the song of the robin in spring. He didn’t have to turn around to know that the voice behind him belonged to his youngest daughter Luna. “-Good morrow little one, I taketh that thy sister and thyself decided to sleep the day away?” Luna only gave the massive tan stallion a small giggle, “Nay father, I have been up since before the sunrise.” “Oh…-“Gold said casually between grunts as he gave the prybar another tug, “-and what were you doing up so early in the morn little Luna?” “I was just flying to the top of Mt. Matahoof to get a better look at the aurora borealis from last night. I saw it out mine window in the middle of the night and just had to get a better look,” Luna told her father with excitement a wide smile on her face. “After sunrise I went for a flight with a flock of returning geese.” Gold had to give a chuckle at his daughter’s enthusiasm over something that most ponies usually wouldn’t think of. After nightfall most ponies went indoors, for fear of the creatures that roamed the night, and never got to see the wonders of the night sky. But he had always loved looking at the night sky and he was happy that Luna shared the same sympathy. He gave one final pry and with the pole bending and creaking, threatening to break; finally the stone surrendered its hold on the ground and rolled over on its side. He wiped his brow and looked to Luna to address her properly, leaning on the end of the log for support as he let out a sigh, “Whew… Your old father is getting too old for this.” “Nonsense father-“Luna replied shaking her head, before smiling at him, “- thou haven’t aged a day.” Gold Rush let out a deep laugh, the love and worship of a child always seemed to blind them to the realities staring back at them. The fact was that he wasn’t a young buck anymore; true he was still in his prime years and had many more years of work ahead of him. But the fact was that he wouldn’t be young forever nor would he stay the center of his daughters’ affections. One day they would find their special somepony and go off and have families of their own. That part was inevitable, but as a father he still wanted to protect them. He grabbed a length of rope and began to tie it around the offending obstacle. “I’m glad to hear that my daughter still thinks so highly of this old pony, but I’m glad thou art here I wanted to talk to thee about something.” He gave a slight grunt as he pulled the rope tight. Luna looked a little confused about what he would want to talk about. -“What is it father?” “Luna, there’s going to come a time when Celestia and thyself are going to find a pony that thou will want to be thy special somepony, and at that time thou will want to go off and have a family of thine own -“ Gold started but was interrupted by a gasp of shock from his youngest. “There’s no way that I could ever want to leave my family. Furthermore no stallion is a strong as thou art father.” “Be that as it may, I just want to ensure that both thy sister and thyself are well taken care of,“ he said as he stepped into the rope harness and pulled the cord taut. He had to smile a little that she still viewed the world so innocently, because despite her size and appearance, she was still a very young mare. “After all I may have to put some eager colt in his place for getting too familiar with my little fillies.” They both shared a little laugh at the idea of some unsuspecting colt who dared to get on the wrong side of the massive stallion. Gold Rush began to drag the rock out of the field while Luna attempted to help him push it from behind. She could have levitated the rock with her magic easily enough, but her father preferred the satisfaction of doing the work with his bare hooves. He always said that you appreciated things more when you gave a little of yourself to make it happen. And after giving so much to the farm over the years in the form of blood and sweat, he had much to be proud of. The two had just finished moving the rock off to the side of the field when Celestia and Lavender Breeze walked up. Gold Rush rubbed his muzzle against his wife and older daughter’s necks in greeting before he began to remove the rope from him and the rock. “Good morrow husband, how goeth the work?” Lavender asked as she helped him remove the harness from one of his shoulders. “Tis good, this field should be done by early e’en, and should be seeded by this night,” Gold Rush told her as he surveyed the part of the large field that still sat undisturbed. “How did your flower’s fair through the winter?” “Better than expected, I’m grateful that this harsh winter didn’t take more. Even with that we will have plenty of flowers to sell this year though.” - She gave him a reassuring smile, to which he returned. -“But we came to see thee because thy oldest daughter has something to ask of ye.” “Oh really?-” Gold asked slowly as Lavender gave the white mare a push on the rear with her head. As Celestia’s eyes meet the golden gaze of her father she suddenly lost her courage and began to shift nervously. Even though she was almost as tall as him now, the sheer presence of him still made him an imposing figure in her eyes. “-What is it that thou wanted to ask of me my daughter?” “Well father, today is the spring festival in town and I was wondering if we might be able to go this year?” Celestia asked her father, unsure of what he would say. Gold Rush remained silent as Celestia tried to read his expression, but all she could pick up in his eyes was the faintest sign that he was thinking about it. The fact that he hadn’t shot the idea down right away was always a good sign, and Celestia knew it was time to bring out the secret weapon. Giving a mental call to her sister, who was currently standing next to Gold, nodded back in reply. “Aye father can we go?” Luna asked excitedly as she tugged a little at Gold’s arm, turning his attention away from her sister. “Art thou saying that thou wisheth to neglect thine responsibilities just to go to a festival?” He asked in a questioning voice at the two, as he narrowed his eyes. The two winged mares both lowered their heads and gave weak nods at his question, figuring that they where being admonished for even suggesting such an idea. They both knew that there was still a lot of work that needed to be done to get the farm ready before the end of the seeding season. Gold Rush turned his attention to Lavender Breeze who stood behind her daughters with a smug smile on her face. It didn’t take a genius to tell that she was enjoying this. “And what does thou sayeth to this wife?” Gold asked looking over the heads of his daughters to her, but Lavender didn’t cower under it like they did. “I leave the decision in thy capable hooves dearest.” Was her reply in an almost sultry voice as she looked at him with half-closed eyelids. Gold Rush gave a small cough as he quickly looked away from his wife, least he be drawn further into her seduction. Instead he turned his attention to the two mares in front of him, looking back and forth between the two for a moment. “Very well we may go to the festival…-“ he started as the two’s heads shot up, excitement on their faces. He held up a hoof to silence them before they had a chance to speak, “-providing that ye three are ready by the time that I’ve put everything away.” The two mares gave a squeal of excitement as they latched onto the stallion giggling in excitement. They gave him a quick kiss on the cheeks before uttering their thanks, as they took flight and shot off towards the cottage leaving Gold and Lavender in the field. Lavender Breeze could see that Gold Rush was bursting with fatherly pride that he had made his little fillies so happy, and that fact made him all the more attractive in her eyes at the moment. She slowly sauntered up to his side and gave him a slow lick on his neck over his jugular; she felt his skin shiver under her sudden action which put a smile on her lips. She could taste the salt on his skin mixed in with his natural earthly scent, the smell that only a hard working stallion would have. As she pulled away he opened his eyes, surprised that she had stopped; she gave him a light kiss on his lips with that same sultry look and he slowly began to feel his blood go wild. “Before thou taketh a bath, come find and taketh me,” And with a turn of her hooves and a flick of her tail, that brushed his nose filling his nostrils with her flowery scent, she was off herself. He watched her walk away towards the cabin for a moment, mesmerized by the seductive sway of her derrière, as another feeling began to swell up inside him as a mischievous grin crept on his lips.