A preview, because why not? · 10:50pm Sep 3rd, 2017
When Flurry saw her mother, she almost cried with relief because of what the nervous jitteriness was doing to her. What she wanted to do was fling herself at her mother, hoping to be held, to be comforted, but what she wanted to do and what she did were two very different things. Taking a deep breath, Flurry approached the table in a calm, dignified manner, and tried to hide how her hitching barrel made her wings quake.
Maintaining her quiet calm, which really wasn’t calm at all based on how her heart was thudding against her ribs, Flurry adjusted the cushion that sat on the floor next to the low table, fluffing it out a bit, and she sat down while looking up at her mother, who looked quite frazzled. Little Flurry took note of the bags beneath her mother’s eyes and the way that the tips of her mother’s ears drooped; a sure sign of exhaustion if ever there was one. Once her mother reached this point of being spent, she could hold her ears up, the but the tips betrayed her. It was something that Flurry’s father had taught her to look for when trying to figure out her mother’s moods.
“How are Hennessy, Flicker, and Piper?” Flurry asked as she settled in and made herself comfortable upon her frosting-pink cushion. “You mentioned something about Hennessy earlier, but I can’t remember what it was.”
With her eyes half closed, or maybe they are half open, Flurry’s mother poured the tea into the ridiculous little teacups that Flurry was embarrassed to even look at. The whole tea set was a gift from her uncle, Gosling, and the little filly felt that she was far too grown up for a teddy bear tea set.
“Flicker was none too keen on attending the cotillion and refused to come. Hennessy tried everything, from cajoling Flicker to coming right out and threatening him, because threats are a language that Flicker understands. When everything failed, Hennessy petitioned your Auntie Celestia and she issued a royal decree, ordering Flicker to escort Hennessy to the cotillion. Hennessy is here not as himself, but as the official emissary of the Underwatch.”
“Oh good—”
“Don’t you even think about it, young lady.”
“Aw, nuts.” Flurry pulled her long, fluffy tail up from the floor and tucked it into place around her legs. At least her mother was smiling, and that was good. The teacup in front of her had a teddy bear with big round eyeglasses holding some balloons in his paw, and and in bright pink print he told her in no uncertain terms, ‘You’re beary special.’ It was grotesque, saccharine even, but she had a soft spot in her heart for it.
It occurred to Flurry that her little sister Skyla adored this tea set and treasured it. The teapot was a teddy bear’s head, which was kind of disturbing if one thought about it, and the spout was a long smoking pipe. Her mother started to fix the tea, but Flurry stopped her, deciding it was time that she fixed her own cup of tea. This seemed to surprise her mother, and Flurry could see something on her face that was almost hurt, which made her feel terrible.
Unable to look at her mother, Flurry fixed her tea how she wanted it, adding a paper-thin slice of crystallised, dehydrated lemon, and then squirting in a little honey, a radical departure indeed. No more drinking tea with a ton of sugar and cream, Flurry wanted to taste some of the bitterness that the drink had to offer. It was time to stop being a foal and take a somewhat more grownup approach, and Flurry was curious about the honey and lemon, which is how her mother usually fixed her own tea for drinking.
“You’re not even at your decade mark,” her mother said in a soft, tight-lipped whisper. “I thought I had more time with you, but you seem to be in a hurry to grow up.”
“Mom… I don’t know about that just yet… but I do kinda want things to change. I’m still a foal, I just don’t want to be treated like I’m little and helpless, like Skyla. You treat us both like we’re the same age… and sometimes, that makes me really super angry. Like giving us the same bedtime—”
“But you share the same room,” Cadance interjected in a soft voice. “If you went to bed later, you might wake her up and that wouldn’t be fair to her.”
“Mom, this isn’t very fair to me…” Again, Flurry could see the hurt in her mother’s eyes, and she felt terrible for being the cause of it. “Mom, I’m sorry—”
“No, don’t be sorry, you’re right. It isn’t fair to you and I’m not sure how to fix it. Keeping both you and your sister in one spot, in one room, it allows us to keep you both safe and secure. It’s so complicated, Flurry… and it isn’t very fair to you that we have enemies… that there are those who wish to do you harm.”
Little Flurry was surprised to see a single glistening tear fall from the corner of her mother’s eye, and unable to look, she stared down into her teacup, because it was just too awful to see. Her mother’s words were a harsh reminder of how things were, and there had been incidents, dangerous, scary incidents. There were rules to keep her safe, such as never, ever getting aboard a train with her uncle, Gosling, because he had bad luck when it came to trains.
Superstitions stopped being silly when a statistical pattern emerged.
Lemme know what you think. This hasn't been edited yet and it is still pretty raw. Also, I am distracted, so the writing is difficult and might be kinda shitty.
Its lookin good.
Looks fine to me - stay cool!
It's really sad to think about how many ponies are under constant threat, how many foals are spending their formative years under lock and key for fear of being murdered or worse by some fucking undead monster.
However Grogar is finally killed, I hope it's extremely painful and thorough...