Dinner was savoury cracked barley drowned in a creamy brown gravy. The small dining area had a couple of ponies packed into it, but Sumac, Lemon Hearts, and Trixie all had a small table in the corner to themselves. It was quiet, which was odd. Sumac expected a lot more noise from having a few ponies packed into a small, cosy space, but that was not the case. After some thought about the issue, he decided that it was the way it was because the ponies had to be tired.
Something was up, of that Sumac was positive. Trixie and Lemon Hearts were avoiding his questions. He was intrigued by whatever hadn’t happened earlier and his mother’s remark that it would be discussed at dinner. Sitting up as tall as possible in his seat, Sumac was able to peer over the edge of his bowl and look in. Barley, bits of celery, slivers of carrot, other things that he did not recognise, and the stink of garlic. Sniffing a few times, he found that he liked how it smelled.
“Boom?” Boomer asked as she too, peered down into the bowl.
“No Boomer, not boom,” Sumac replied.
“Not boom.” Boomer took a moment to think about this development, this new line of reasoning that there was boom and not boom. Clinging to Sumac’s horn, Boomer bonelessly twisted her head around and looked over at Lemon Hearts. “Not boom,” she announced in a very matter-of-fact voice.
“Ugh, Boomer, your head is twisted completely around and you are looking at me upside down… that’s so creepy!” Lemon Hearts shivered, closed her eyes, then opened them as she shook her head.
Boomer twisted her head some more, doing a full three hundred and sixty degree rotation, and then a little more as she tilted her head off to one side. Blinking, she asked, “Not boom?”
“Oooh! Stop that! My skin is crawling!” Lemon Hearts turned away and then gave herself a hug as she tried to deal with her revulsion. “That’s unnatural!”
Unconcerned with unnatural, Boomer twisted her head back around in the proper direction, looked down into Sumac’s bowl, and then blinked a few times as she targeted her prey. A second later, her long tongue flicked out and she caught herself a piece of barley, which she slurped up like a bug.
Sumac paid it very little attention. He still wanted to know what his mother and Lemon Hearts weren’t talking about. Armed with his spoon, he began to eat his dinner, but he paid very little attention to what he was eating. Something was up—his intuition told him as much—and he wanted some answers.
“Tomorrow, we board a train and we’re going to Canterlot,” Trixie announced as she stirred her dinner in her bowl. “I’ve been informed that Prince Gosling has made arrangements and has a place for us to stay. Tomorrow, we’ll have a nice day doing whatever, and then the day after, we’ll be guests at the wedding.”
“Oh, and Pebble will be joining us tomorrow on the train, along with Vinyl and Octavia,” Lemon Hearts added. “I don’t know what’s up with Tarnish and Maud, but they will be joining us in Canterlot. They’ve been added to the security detail. Maybe they’re getting a debriefing or something?” Confused, Lemon hunched over her bowl, picked up her spoon, and then gave her bowl a vacant stare.
“If there is any kind of shenanigans during the wedding, I feel sorry for whoever does it.” Trixie blew on her steaming bowl a few times, blinked, and shook her head. “Changelings, harpies, raptorians, those silly bumble creatures, all of them will be no match for the security detail.”
“Speaking of the security detail…” Lemon Hearts leaned forwards a little more. “I think Sumac might feel a little more secure if we told him—”
“Lemon.” Trixie put her spoon down in her bowl and left it there.
Sumac could feel the tension, but he didn’t stop eating. He was too hungry, and if he didn’t eat, Boomer would eat it all. She was snatching bits and bites with his every spoonful. He glanced over at Lemon, then looked over at Trixie. Both mares were staring at one another and seemed to be having a contest of wills.
“Miss Lulamoon, you can’t avoid the issue.” Lemon Hearts’ voice was a low whisper so she would not draw the attention of others around her. The last thing she wanted was to cause a scene during dinner. “It’s not fair to Sumac… something could happen at any time.”
Sighing, Trixie gave a nod of defeat. “You’re right, Lemon.” Trixie leaned back in her chair, turned her head to give Sumac a direct look, and then she said, “Sumac Apple, with the recent conflict, I had to make a really tough decision about something very difficult for me and I guess it is time that we talk about it.”
“Are you and Lemon getting married?” Sumac asked as one of his eyebrows raised. “If you are, that’s totally okay. The colt stared into his mother’s mortified face and he watched as she turned a dark, dusky shade of purple that sort of made her look like Twilight Sparkle.
“No,” Trixie squeaked, “we are not getting married. We are, uh, well, the uh, um…” The flustered mare put an end to her stammering by going quiet.
“Well why not?” Sumac asked.
“What do you mean why not?” Lemon Hearts reached out and touched Sumac with her hoof.
“Exactly what I just said.” Sumac looked over at Lemon, who still had a hoof on him. “You’ve thrown up all over her during the train ride and you are still friends, plus, for the past few nights, both of you have slept in the same bed together. Isn’t that what married ponies do? You even take baths together… and by the way, I’m not getting in the tub with the two of you again. It’s weird for me and I don’t like it.”
Now it was Lemon Hearts’ turn to have a furious blush. The vivid pink mixed with her yellow to produce a sunrise orange. She pulled her hoof away, made a squeaking sound, and then just sat there in silence, unable to refute Sumac’s unassailable fortress of foalish logic. Lemon tried looking at Trixie, but that was a huge mistake. When their gazes met, Lemon let out a shrill squeak and looked away.
Sumac kept shoveling down his dinner, which was almost already gone.
“Sumac, in the event of my untimely demise, you will need a guardian,” Trixie said in a hesitant, somewhat halting voice. It seemed as though she hung on her every word and the corners of her mouth twitched as she spoke. Her ears perked forwards and she leaned a little closer to Sumac. “You will need a parent. This has been agonising for me to deal with and I couldn’t have done it without Lemon’s help.”
“Oh.” Sumac swallowed, even though his mouth was empty at the moment. He felt a lump, as though his food was coming back up and he didn’t like thinking about this at all. “I see.” His appetite vanished and he let Boomer finish off what was left in his bowl.
“If something happens to me…” Trixie’s voice trailed off and she was unable to continue.
Lemon Hearts, courageous, picked up where Trixie had left off. “If something happens to Trixie, I will be your guardian pro tempore.” The lemony yellow mare paused, cleared her throat, and gave Sumac a brave, but quivering smile as her eyes misted over. “I will have partial custody of you… Applejack and Big Mac will have partial custody as well. You’ll have some time to make a decision with whom you wish to stay with, and nopony will be upset or angry with you when you decide. We all just want what is best for you and we want you to be happy.”
“How do I make a decision like that?” Sumac felt his control slipping and he didn’t like it. “Making me pick between ponies that I love… I don’t like it at all—”
“Sumac, a provision was made that you don’t have to choose if you do not wish to do so,” Lemon said, cutting in on Sumac’s words with a few soothing words of her own. “Custody can be shared and we can take turns with you. It was Big Mac that said it might be best that way. Applejack seemed to think that the decision should just be made for you if you couldn’t decide, but Big Mac disagreed.”
Mollified, Sumac fell silent, but he didn’t feel much better. He sat there, staring, and paid no attention to Boomer, who slipped down from his horn and perched on the edge of his bowl, so she could drink the gravy left in the bottom of the bowl. Folding his forelegs, he rested them on the table and then just sat there, gobsmacked and unresponsive.
“You are very dear to me, Sumac,” Lemon Hearts confessed in a vulnerable whisper. “You and Trixie both are very, very dear to me. Even if Trixie isn’t gay, I’m never letting go of her as my friend because I’ll hold on to her and keep her in any way that I can… and you too.”
“It took a bit of begging and wrangling.” Trixie picked up her spoon and then begin to stir the contents of her bowl. “Twilight stepped in and made it possible… I’m not married to Lemon but Applejack and Big Mac both have direct blood ties. We all came to an agreement because we want what is best for you.”
Nodding, Sumac managed to say, “I appreciate that.” He didn’t know what else to say, however, and then lapsed back into silence as he tried to think about what Lemon Hearts meant to him. The idea of losing Trixie caused him to feel queasy. Sumac realised that it was too warm in this tiny little dining area off of the kitchenette. He needed air and he needed it now.
“Sumac, you look like you don’t feel good.” Trixie, an observant maternal type, gave Sumac a nudge with her hoof. “Go and get yourself some air, Sumac. But don’t go too far. Be careful. When Lemon and I are done, we’ll come looking for you and maybe we can spend some time together.”
“Okay…”
Alone in the room that he shared with Trixie and Lemon Hearts, Sumac took a deep, calming breath. He wasn’t too keen on the idea of losing his mother. For a moment, he felt a pang of guilt when he thought about biting her when she had tried to leave. Feeling the sting of tears, he made himself think of something else.
His gaze came to rest upon the lantern, which sat on a little table between the two beds. Glad for a distraction, he went over, climbed up onto the bed, sat down, and lifted the ancient artifact in his magic. Filled with idle curiousity, he began moving the plates around once more, sliding them all back into their original positions until he had an earth pony, a pegasus pony, and a unicorn. He studied the outlines that faced out in each direction. Beneath the unicorn, there was a small triangle that pointed up. After a bit of fiddling about, Sumac found the means to twist the base of the lantern and much to his surprise, the triangle could be rotated around so that it pointed to each of the different tribes represented on the lantern.
Fascinated, he rotated the triangle, which he guessed was some sort of indicator, over to the earth pony silhouette. It clicked into place and nothing happened. Sumac fiddled with a few knobs, but nothing else revealed itself. Squinting, he peered into the earth pony shaped opening and tried to see inside of the lantern.
Nothing.
His lantern had an earth pony setting and he didn’t know what it did. Maybe it only worked for earth ponies? He needed Pebble to help him experiment. Holding the lantern up to his face, still peering inside, his nose brushed up against the shutter latch that closed the earth pony panel.
There was a brilliant flash of light, just like a camera, and then Sumac’s magic went away. The lantern tumbled down to the bed and bounced a few times as Sumac tried to figure out what was up with his magic. His horn didn’t seem to be doing anything. Worried, he lept down down from the bed, or tried to, so he could go and get some help. His little leap launched him across the room and into the wall. Raising his forelegs, he kept his face from smashing into the wall, which he bounced off of. With a cry, he fell down onto the other bed and landed with a plop. Panicked, he tried to roll over, his hind leg kicked the wall, and this sent him flying.
He shot off of the bed, smacked the back of his skull against the wooden table between the beds, and then landed upon the floor with a thump. Already, he could feel a goose egg lump rising up just behind his ears, turning him into a two-hornicorn. Groaning, Sumac tried to lay very still as he thought about his situation. After a few seconds, he realised that he had no magic and he was too strong. Way too strong. He was a juggernaut of strength.
Every little movement was brutish and overpowered.
So this is what it was like to be an earth pony. He wondered how Pebble hadn’t wrecked the world yet. Movement was too risky and Sumac could feel something wet and sticky in his mane. Too afraid to move, Sumac did the only thing a colt in his situation could do when faced with a crisis such as this.
He cried out for his mother and begged for help.