“You’ve had quite an adventurous day, Sumac.” Hearing these words, Sumac’s gaze fell from his mother down to his plate and Boomer let out a startled honk of surprise as his head shifted. The worried colt wasn’t sure if these words had a double meaning, if perhaps he had screwed up, or if she was disappointed with him.
“How’s your head?” Lemon Hearts asked.
“It doesn’t hurt much,” Sumac replied. Squirming in his seat, it was time to turn the tables and turn the focus away from him, before Trixie or Lemon wanted to know what had happened. If he had to go through his whole spiel again, they might pry his secrets out of him. “So, what were you up to today? I was in the infirmary getting my head stapled and you weren’t there.”
“I can’t talk about it.” Trixie’s eyes narrowed and her head tilted off to the right. “You devious little scamp… you just tried to redirect me and catch me off guard. Now I know that you were up to no good earlier.”
Gulping, Sumac knew that he had messed up. He stared down at his mashed potatoes and the creamy pepper gravy smothering them. Beside his mashed potatoes was a wheat ‘meat’ steak, a chunk of seitan. Textured wheat gluten. While many ponies like it, Sumac wasn’t one of them. The mouth feel it had gave him the shivers.
“I’m not going to lecture you,” Trixie said to Sumac in a voice that held the suggestion of a chuckle, “but I am going to tell you to be more careful. No doubt, you were trying to experiment a bit. I’m thinking that it was a come to life spell on the rug, and the rug then kicked your fuzzy little butt when you failed to control it. That’s gotta be embarrassing, so I’ll just leave it be.”
Arching an eyebrow, Sumac gave his mother a glare. It wasn’t lying, not exactly, not at all, he was just letting her believe what she wanted to believe, and he wasn’t going to discourage her otherwise. He couldn’t stop her from reaching her own conclusions. Ears angling over his face, he poured on the convincing charisma and was rewarded with a snort.
“Your little face tells me everything I want to know.” Trixie held out her fork and pointed it at Sumac. “I know that little colts like to experiment in private, but I’m putting my hoof down. No more come to life spells without an adult present. Am I clear?”
Sumac’s sullen expression intensified.
“Am I clear?” Trixie’s fork stabbed the air in Sumac’s general direction.
Allowing his ears to droop in a subdued and submissive manner, Sumac nodded. “I solemnly swear that I will not practice come to life spells without an adult present.” He sank down in his chair and tried not to feel guilty. He wasn’t lying and he wanted to believe that this wasn’t too dishonest. Trixie had come to her own conclusions, so this was her fault. He was innocent. There was no sense in self-incrimination.
“I was about his age when I had a come to life spell go bad.” Lemon Hearts blinked her raspberry coloured eyes at Sumac, then turned to look at Trixie. “I was trying to enchant my book to turn its pages as I read them, but my spell missed and enchanted the table. It ran around the room chasing after me and kept kicking me on my adorable little rear end.”
“Hmm, I think I would’ve liked to have seen that—”
“Trixie!” Lemon Hearts waved a spoonful of mashed potatoes in a threatening manner. “I was traumatised! It hurt! It was super-embarrassing!”
“Such is the life of the unicorn growing up.”
Trixie, Lemon Hearts, and Sumac all turned to face the new voice that had intruded upon their conversation. Lemon Hearts looked perplexed, Sumac was confused, and poor Trixie, she looked terrified at the sight of her own mother, who now stood at the edge of the table. The tension in the air became so thick that it could be cut with a knife.
“Cat have your tongue, Trixie?”
“Mother…” Trixie shrank back in her seat. “I knew you would be coming, but I still didn’t expect to see you.”
The golden orange mare with the aristocratic air turned and focused her attention upon Sumac. She stared at him, her eyebrow arching, and her ears pivoted around until facing forward. Sumac, who stared right back, did so in an absolutely fearless manner, as he wasn’t so sure that he liked this strange mare sizing him up.
“Lemon, Sumac, this is Lady Dandelia Lion Lulamoon—”
“Oh, just call me Dandy Lion. I never did abide by that name, too much of a mouthful.” She took a step closer to Sumac, but paused when Trixie tensed up. The tension grew ever thicker when mother and daughter engaged in a staring match, with Dandelia Lion Lulamoon using her great height to her advantage over Trixie. “I demand to know what is going on here.”
“Look here, Lady Lulamoon, you’re not in your tower!” Trixie’s words were spat out with noticeable venom. “You’re not in charge here, and I’m not going to let you mess with my son’s head.”
“Son?” The older Lulamoon blinked and her smile vanished. “Oh, so the rumours are true. Oh my—”
“Oh, shut up!” Trixie was out of her seat in a hot second and with a few steps, she was right up in her mother’s face. “Don’t you even start with the guilt or the shame! I think you’ll be surprised at what I’m capable of now!”
“Trixie, do calm down,” Dandelia said to her daughter in a dismissive voice. “I came here to make peace, not to cause problems.”
“Well, for somepony wanting to make peace, you’re kinda acting as though you’re suffering a cranial-rectal inversion.” Lemon Hearts focused a stony, dead-eyed stare upon Trixie’s mother. “I’ve only known you for a few minutes, but already I don’t much care for you.”
“Very well then, please, allow me to try again.” The haughty quality to Dandelia’s voice diminished, but did not vanish entirely. Her eyes, however, were pleading and betrayed her overconfident expression. “I’m still putting the pieces together and I came to make things right. Please, give me a chance?”
“Why should I?” Trixie snapped as she poked her mother in the chest with her hoof.
“Because, I made some mistakes and I know that. I want to make them right.” Dandelia stood her ground against her daughter’s advances. “Because I’d like to meet my grandson—”
“Horseapples!” Baring her teeth, Trixie stabbed her hoof into her mother’s chest again.
Glancing around the dining area, Lemon Hearts took notice of all of the eyes now focused upon them. “Uh, maybe we should go someplace private to sort this out.”
“They’re just commoners, let them stare at their betters.” Dandelia rolled her eyes and let out a snort. “They clearly don’t know any better. Blank stares are sign of poor breeding.”
“Talking out of one’s ass, is that a sign of poor breeding or just an unfortunate mutation?” Sumac asked.
Ears twitching, Dandelia Lion Lulamoon turned and glowered at Sumac, and the colt did not turn away from the withering stare of the elder Lulamoon. Shoving her mother away, Trixie placed herself between Sumac and Dandelia, her horn now glowing with a fierce light.
“Just give me a reason,” Trixie growled.
“That’s enough!” Twilight’s commanding voice echoed through the kitchenette and dining area. “That’s quite enough!” Twilight strode forwards, her eyes worried and fearful. “Lady Lulamoon, while Trixie is dangerous enough, you are not prepared for what Sumac will do to you if he becomes riled. You will mind your tongue in my home, or face expulsion.”
Cowed, Lady Lulamoon bowed her head and submitted to Twilight’s authority. A pony had to respect their betters, after all.
“Now, all of you, you will go into a quiet, private place and sort out your differences. Trixie, you will give your mother a chance to make things right. Lady Lulamoon, you will respect your daughter, or so help me, I will banish you from Ponyville and the surrounding environs.” Twilight focused a flinty stare upon Sumac and took a step forwards. “You… you will control your mouth before an incident is caused. The last thing that anypony needs is somepony as powerful as Lady Lulamoon going berserk in a crowded castle.”
“Sorry, Twilight.” Sumac bowed his head and stared down at his uneaten wheat ‘meat,’ thankful that he wasn’t going to have to eat it.
“I will silence you, if necessary.” Twilight’s aggressive posture relaxed a bit, but her stare remained focused upon Sumac. “Please understand, I want you safe, Sumac, and you have not yet learned to control your magic.”
“I understand.” Sumac gave Twilight a nod of acknowledgment.
“Now, come with me and I will escort you to a place where you can sort out your differences.” Twilight made a gesture with her wing and her fierce expression softened. “Leave your dishes, I will have them taken care of. Lemon Hearts, I want you to go as well, so Trixie and Sumac can have some support. Keep Sumac subdued, Lemon. Make that a priority.”
“Yeah, Boss, I gotcha. Keep the castle from being exploded.”
Twilight shook her wing at the entryway. “Now move!”
As Twilight shut the door, Trixie sized her mother up with a critical eye. The elder Lulamoon’s cool demeanour was now gone and she looked shaken. Sumac, herded over to a short sofa by Lemon Hearts, kept his eye on the golden orange mare with the sunflower cutie mark. Lemon Hearts, the dutiful mare that she was, sat down upon the sofa with Sumac.
“I know all of your tricks,” Trixie said to her mother in a hissy, angry voice. “Lemon, Sumac, keep an eye on her eyes, they change colour with her mood.”
“I’ll admit that I might’ve made a mistake.” Dandelia took a step backwards and her ears drooped down into a more submissive position. “Many mistakes were made. That’s why I’m here. I did wrong by you, my daughter.”
“This is just some ploy to get me to come home!” Trixie, trembling, kept her gaze focused upon her mother and she did not let down her guard. “This is all just some clever ruse to get me to go home so that Caper has somepony other than you to abuse and talk down to!”
“Beatrix Lion Lulamoon,” Dandelia said, shocking her daughter into silence by using her full name, “Caper is dead. That is why I am here. I am trying to make things right.”
“Caper is dead?” All of Trixie’s bluster vanished and she began backing away from her mother, wary of any attempts on her mother’s part to hug her. She shook her head in disbelief. “No, this is a trick, a lie… you just want me to return home and he’ll be there, alive, waiting for me… no… no… no!” Trixie stomped her hoof down upon the floor and her expression turned fierce.
“Arcturus Capella Lion Lulamoon is no more.” Dandelia’s face became grim and solemn. “Trixie, I will not lie to you. I do need for you to return to Lulamoon Hollow. Caper is gone, sealed away in the family crypt—”
“No!” Trixie’s eyes were now glassy with tears and her backside bumped into the wall as she ran out of room to keep retreating. “No, you’re lying! Lies come easy for you!”
“Trixie, I don’t think she’s lying—”
“Shut up, Lemon! You don’t know what she’s capable of!”
“Trixie”—Lemon Hearts’ voice was one of soothing calm—“I don’t think she’d lie to you about something like this.”
“Why would I need to return home?” Trixie demanded as she blinked away tears.
Dandelia cleared her throat, lifted her head high, and then in a clear, bold voice she replied, “Caper watched you for the longest time. He watched you on the road. I had no idea that he was doing this, please believe me when I tell you this, I wish I had known, as I had spent so much time worrying, but he kept it from me.”
“I don’t believe you!” Trixie snapped in a shrill voice.
“Caper had a change of heart at some point… he never even told me. He continued to shame me for what I did, not a day passed when he didn’t take the chance to remind me of the shame I brought on our family for what I did—”
“Yet you stayed! I left! You could have left!” Trixie bared her teeth and stomped her hoof again.
“Trixie, let me finish,” Dandelia begged. “Caper had a change of heart that he never told me about. At some point, I don’t know when, he had you recognised as one of his legal heirs, and he granted you all of the titles, ranks, and privileges as befits a pony of noble birth. Trixie, Lulamoon Hollow is now ours, and we need to figure out what to do with the fiefdom now that Caper is gone.”
Trixie opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. She stood there, wobbling, her mouth hanging open, staring at her mother with both shock and disbelief. Overcome with the emotional gravity of the situation, Trixie, born as Beatrix Lion Lulamoon, did what any proper unicorn of noble breeding might do.
She fainted.