Pandemic: Starting Over

by Halira

Chapter 15: Mom and Dad

The house I was standing in front of didn't look remarkable at first glance. It was a simple wooden structure with the boards running diagonally along the walls. Each board was painted either white or red, making the entire building resemble a peppermint. There was a simple roofed porch which had a porch swing and a few daisies in planters. There was a larger garden off to the side with a broader array of flowers growing, although no one was tending them. There were large square windows that had gaudy looking curtains in amber-yellow with lemon-yellow smiling suns upon them. The porch light was electric, and there was a simple welcome mat with the word welcome written on it. It was the kind of gaudy design that ponies who idolized Equestria thought looked good.

It took me several seconds, puzzling over what felt off about the house, before it finally came to me. This was literally the first house I had ever visited that was not built to accommodate humans at all. The roof was too low; the front door would require a human to squat down low to their knees to get through. Most houses I was familiar with were either built with humans in mind and given some additional accommodations to make usable for ponies, or were built with ponies in mind but with the idea that humans might be entering them regularly. This was a strictly pony house.

I took one final deep breath and knocked on the door.

"I'll get it!" Came a voice that didn't belong to someone around seventy years old, more like seven. The door opened, and I found myself staring down at a blue earth pony colt with an orange mane. He grinned broadly up at me. "Hi, there! Who are you?"

Maybe Sunrise had been wrong about which house was theirs. "I might be in the wrong place. I'm looking for some ponies named Dry Soil and Hook Line."

"That's my mom and dad!" He said excitedly and turned around.

What did he mean that was his mom and dad?!

"Mom! Dad! There's a funny lookin unicorn at the door looking for you!"

My breath seized up in my lungs. Maybe I had made a mistake and had identified the wrong ponies as my parents? They couldn't have had another foal. Not at their age. This had to be a mistake.

"I made an error," I said. "I'll just be leav-"

An elderly brown earth pony mare with a bleach white mane came to the door, and I knew I'd made no mistake. She gasped as she saw me. "Sinker, go to your room and play."

"But, Mom-"

She shook her head, and her eyes darted around the neighborhood as if looking for something. "No arguing. Just go to your room for a little while." She quickly turned her head to look back into the house. "Hook! We've got a guest. It's that unicorn from TV- the one the President pardoned."

"Well, get her inside, before Morning Flower notices her," called out a stallion from somewhere inside. "You know how that mare is!"

Sinker walked off in a huff, and the pony I assumed to be my mother quickly motioned me inside, still darting her eyes around the neighborhood like a mob was hiding in all the bushes waiting to jump out and make a rush for the house. As soon as I got inside, she shut the door quickly behind me, almost slamming it.

She gave me an apologetic look. "Sorry about that. Our neighbor is normally a very nice pony- at least with other ponies, but she tends to rant at length about you and says some very shocking unponylike things about what she'd do if she ever saw you."

I didn't respond. I just kept staring at her with a dumbfounded expression. She blinked and looked me over. "Are you alright? The Shimmerists didn't give you a fright, did they? Don't worry, you don't need to worry about any of that from my husband or me; we're Lunites, and we have no quarrels with you. We saw you on television. That was a courageous speech you gave, but what brings you here?"

"I have a brother?!" I blurted out in disbelief. Maybe I yelled it. I really didn't know.

She stepped back. "What? Who are you-" Her eyes went wide, and her lip trembled. "Charlotte… is- is that you?!"

I started tearing up. "Mom-"

She leaped forward and wrapped her forelegs around me, pulling me into a tighter hug than someone her age had a right to do. She laid her head down on my shoulder, and I could hear her take a huge sniff of me before she broke down crying.

A blue earth pony stallion with equally white mane came walking in. "Dry, what's wrong? What's going on?"

My mom kept a hold of me as if she was afraid I'd vanish if she released me. "It's Charlotte! She's come back to us!"

My dad was now the one staring with his mouth agape. "Is- is it true? Is that you- Charlotte?"

I nodded as best I could with my mother gripped tightly onto me. "It's me, Dad. I'm sorry I-"

I didn't get to finish before he joined my mother in grabbing me into a hug. I broke down sobbing at this point. After all this time, all the cruel and harsh words that were said, and all the things they knew about Sunset Blessing from the media, all they cared about was I was home. I didn't even get to say my apologies yet.

It was several minutes of hugging, but it needed to come to an end. I started to pull away. "I hate to end this, but if I don't, you two are going to crush me to death with your earth pony strength."

They reluctantly released me and stepped back just outside my personal space. "Sorry, baby," my mom began. Then she shook her head. "Well, not really my little baby filly anymore. I always knew that you were capable of big things. I'm glad you didn't end up just wasting yourself as a housewife."

At a different time, that comment might have been the start of an argument, but things had changed, and somewhere along the line, I had come to agree with her on that. Although, as of late, I wasn't so sure I shouldn't have just stayed a housewife. "We've all changed. You two are looking very hardy for ponies your age."

Dad chuckled. "Maybe not as hardy as I look. I'm not up to doing all the work I used to do."

Mom nuzzled up next to him. "He's right. If we didn't get help building this place, I swear your father would have dropped dead from the work that went into building it. He still insisted on being the one to put in all the wiring."

He snorted. "I wanted it done right. You never know with these younger ponies if they'll end up doing it correctly."

I chewed on my lip. "And you both seem to be doing well enough in other ways. Was that my literal brother, or just some colt you adopted?"

"Sinker?" Mom asked. "Oh, he came out of me. I don't think I was half as surprised to find out I was turning into a pony years ago as I was when the doctor told me I was pregnant again- at my age! I should be visiting grandfoals, or even great-grandfoals, not having another one."

"But he has been a little blessing," Dad added in, then looked at me and laughed. "No pun intended on you."

Mom gave him a jab with her foreleg. "Yeah, right. You were probably spending that whole time hugging her, just trying to think of some way to make a play on her name."

"So… you two aren't afraid of me?" I asked quietly.

They stopped their jovial back and forth. "Why would we be afraid of you?" Mom asked.

I shrugged and rubbed the back of my head. "Well- I was kind of at fault for a city blowing up, and all the people in this town seem ready to run whenever they see me."

Mom came up and put her hoof on me. "My baby filly, you've been reading the town wrong. Those ponies aren't scared of you, they're scared for you. We have ponies of all walks and creeds here, and we all know some Shimmerists. This past year it has become like a national pastime for the Shimmerists to talk about how much they hate you. The conversations go like this; Hi, how was your day? How are your foals doing? Did you hear about whatever mischief so-and-so got up to? Also, have you heard about how much I hate Sunset Blessing? Let me tell you about it again, just in case you forgot. Really, it would get boring if it weren't so shocking the things they say. A lot of us have started avoiding them when we can. I mean, I've never heard anypony hate another pony like that."

Dad nodded. "When the average pony sees you, they aren't thinking of you doing anything wrong; they're thinking about all those Shimmerists, and they know that trouble is getting ready to happen. As for the city blowing up- the president himself said you weren't to blame. I trust him more than the Shimmerists."

"Frankly, I'm surprised you were able to even get to our house without causing a riot," Mom added in.

"Sunrise Storm escorted me here. She said it would help put ponies at ease," I explained.

Mom grinned. "She's such a nice young mare and so talented! It was good of her to do that. The Shimmerists wouldn't dare do anything to you with her right beside you."

I frowned. "She failed to mention I had a little brother."

"Maybe she was just trying to let it be a surprise," Dad suggested. "Or maybe she thought you knew. Don't be mad at her for such a little thing. Especially since she kept you safe through town."

"Speaking of colts," Mom cut in. "What about Matthew, and that husband of yours?"

"Uh...hmm. How do I put this," I replied. Trying to figure out the easiest way to go over these details. "I'm guessing you didn't listen to my whole speech."

"We'd been hearing stuff about the Cataclysm on the news nonstop for weeks before that," Dad explained. "It was like 9-11 all over again. Lots of ponies and humans had gotten up and made speeches about things to that point."

Mom rolled her eyes. "They still are."

"We mainly remembered the parts about condemning Shimmerism and the part about you getting pardoned since we have a neighbor who doesn't want to shut her trap about it," Dad finished explaining.

Mom rubbed her head. "If she didn't help me so much with my garden, I'd probably avoid her for that. I don't like hearing ponies talking about anypony that way. It's just not right!"

I sighed. "Okay, where to begin- Matthew is Phobia Remedy."

They stared blankly at me for a moment. I was afraid now I'd have to explain who the Dreamwardens were because they didn't keep up with things.

"But isn't Phobia Remedy a mare?" Dad finally asked.

I nodded. "Phobia, my one and only foal, is a mare."

"So she's one of those ones," Mom said in understanding. "We know somepony like that, don't we, dear? His name is Victory Bird, he's a stallion, a big massive brute of a pegasus that could probably wrestle most earth ponies, but he'd been a woman as a human. Not many ponies like that, and you tend to forget those details when dealing with them. I mean, who cares what they used to be? I don't look at Victory and think about how he used to be a human woman. I look at him and think- how much does that lunkhead work out? Those muscles are obscenely big!"

"I always do forget Victory switched sexes," Dad replied and then frowned. "So our granddaughter is the Warden of Fear? That's a lot to take in."

"How did you and your husband take that?" Mom asked hesitantly. I knew why she was hesitant.

"It changed my worldviews about some things, changed Tom's as well," I answered. "And Tom and I divorced, right after ETS. We still talk, mainly because of Phobia. He's remarried and has two nice young daughters- a pegasus and a unicorn." I took a deep breath. "I remarried too."

"Well, good for you!" Mom exclaimed. "I never liked Tom. Who's your new husband? What's he do? When will we get to meet him?"

Awkward…

I hung my head. "My wife can't really visit. She's kinda dead. She died in the Cataclysm."

Mom's eyes went wide again, and I saw her mouthing the word 'wife' in astonishment. She didn't linger on that long, though, before I found myself pulled into another hug. "My poor baby! I'm so sorry to hear that."

"She's also sorta alive," I added in. Mom broke away from me and stared in confusion. Dad echoed her expression. I took a deep breath and explained. "She's a Dreamwarden too. She's Arbiter, although she'll always be Tonya to me."

Dad blinked. "I never knew we were so well connected to famous and powerful ponies."

Mom jabbed him again. "Hook! Don't be saying things like that! Can't you see she's upset about the loss of her wife? I don't know how the whole dead-not dead thing works, but it's clearly still some form of dead."

I gritted my teeth. "Thank you, but can we just not talk about that anymore? It's a painful subject."

Mom brought a hoof up to her mouth in embarrassment. "Of course! Why don't we go to the living room, and we can talk about other things. It's rude of us to have kept you standing here by the door for so long. Maybe we could let your little brother meet and talk to his big sister he didn't even know he had."

It was my turn to gape. "You never told him about me?"

Mom and Dad looked at each other, then me with their ears hung low. "Well… you kinda made it clear you didn't want us in your life anymore, last time we spoke," Dad answered timidly. "We figured it might be better just not to tell him, rather than rip open an old wound. We hadn't spoken to you in over twenty years when he was born."

"But you're here now!" Mom added in, giving me a bright smile. "And I'm proud you have become such a notable pony. You know, your aunt is a pretty big figure in local politics. I guess politics is just in the family blood. I could introduce you to her. She's a unicorn now that goes by the name Gold-"

"I'd rather not, Mom," I said quickly. "I'm done with politics. Let's just go to the living room. We can talk about other things and catch up. I also wanted to ask you for some advice."

Mom gave me another confused look. "Advice from us? About what? We're just simple ponies. I'm sure whatever your problem is, you know tons of experts in whatever it is."

I sighed. "I just became acting guardian to five foals, and the oldest of them is a teenager that I can't stop butting heads with. Phobia was never this kind of problem. I need some parenting advice."

My parents gaped at me again. I was afraid at this point that I was going to get their faces frozen like that.

Mom broke out of her stupor first. "Let's go sit down, and you can tell us all about it. Come on."

Comments

[Dream Seeker]

I like how this highlights and puts into perspective again just how much Sunset Blessing has changed