Breakfast was müesli, which Sumac didn’t mind, and was even excited about eating. It was the breakfast of adventurers, and this batch was a specially formulated blend of everything an adventurer needed to get them through a busy day. The package had an actual endorsement from Daring Do and Tarnished Teapot, world famous adventurers. Grains mixed with dried, dehydrated fruits, crunchy nuts, and little seeds that had to be popped between the teeth. Instead of just adding some hot water, as one might do out in the field, this morning’s breakfast had been prepared with yogurt.
“Tarnish, if you don’t mind me asking… how does one get sponsorships and endorsement?” Lemon Hearts asked in between bites of her breakfast.
It was Maud who answered. “Ponies are visual creatures, as evidenced by our huge eyes, and further evidenced by our cutie marks. We see things and make associations, like a company logo side by side with a well known cutie mark. Now, Tarnish here, his cutie mark scares ponies, so it was Miss Yearling’s mark that ended up being used for the sponsorship, but plenty of ponies know Tarnish by name alone—”
“Yes, and a great many sphincters clench when it is spoken—”
“Vinyl!” Octavia’s protest came out as a shrill whine. “Don’t say such things in my voice! It’s dreadful!” Letting out a huff, she vented her frustrations on poor Megara, and she began to clean the little manticore spawn’s face, ignoring her yowling cries. “Hold still! Don’t you hook me! Be good! Stop squirming! How does your adorable little face get so dirty?”
Sumac was glad it wasn’t him and he cringed a bit when Octavia even tried to clean Megara’s tusks. He understood recognition, having lived with Trixie; his mother had worn out her welcome in a great many places. The graveyards had always welcomed them though, and had been their place of safety, an often fenced-in secure place on the edge of town.
“Hold still or else…”
“Else what?” Megara asked, because Octavia had trailed off mid-sentence.
“Or else I’ll brush you all over and somehow tame that mess of mane you have!”
Sulking, Megara went still, and Tarnish began to snicker. Octavia had that effect on ponies.
Octavia was about to say something else, when a chiming sound could be heard, and it rang through the house like invisible bells. The effect was immediate and sudden; Tarnish rose from his seat, looking concerned, and Sumac could see his mother’s horn glowing. There was a new tension present now that hadn’t been here just a second ago.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Tarnish said, trying to be reassuring no doubt. “Just some unknown visitor approaching the house. I’d better go out and check on them before the plants get all antsy.”
While he departed, heading out of the kitchen, he gave Trixie a reassuring nuzzle on the neck as he went past, and Sumac watched his mother react. Much to his surprise, she calmed a bit, but her horn still glowed, and she no longer looked sleepy in the slightest. Of course, the chiming alarm was just the sort of thing that would put a pony on edge.
When Tarnish returned, he was carrying an ivory paper envelope, which was torn open along the top edge, and he was pulling out whatever was inside. Sumac, curious, was dying to know what was going on, the tension had built to such a point that he was in desperate need of release. His head bobbed, but he continued to somehow hold it up, even though it took considerable effort on his part.
Pebble’s expression was something, but Sumac could not read what it was. One of Maud’s ears twitched, a bare minimum of movement. Octavia was half-hugging Megara now, and Megara was gobbling down the remains of her breakfast, destroying all of Octavia’s hard work. Twinkleshine put down her spoon and picked up her mug of hot apple cider. Sumac could see that Vinyl was trembling; he also saw both fear and worry as well.
“It’s from my boss,” Tarnish said to everypony. “It’s a telegram—”
“Is something wrong?” Maud asked, getting right to the point.
“No, things have gone right!” The telegram shook in Tarnish’s telekinesis.
“Well, out with it!” Octavia demanded, and she let out an impatient, annoyed huff.
“The Lunar Library has been found,” Tarnish said, his voice rising in pitch from excitement. “Luna’s old library and archive… this is the find of our age… this is—”
“Where?” Maud leaned forwards and her eyes narrowed. In a single second, Maud was more expressive than anypony gathered around the table had ever seen. “Where, Tarnish?”
“Right where you said it would be,” Tarnish replied. “Daring mentioned that. You were right, the stone foundation of the city acted like a sled when the city fell into the sea. You were right!”
“Trixie is very, very confused.”
“Horseshoe Bay is a crater.” Tarnish began his explanation and he pulled the telegram away from his face. “Where Baltimare now is, there used to be an alicorn city. A major battle was fought there a long time ago. A meteor was called down from the heavens, and it struck the outer edge of the city, and it formed the Horseshoe Bay crater. The city toppled and slid into the sea.”
Lemon, hearing this, sat blinking. “Oh my gosh…”
“So, who called down the meteor?” Pebble asked.
“Princess Celestia.” Tarnish’s voice lost most of its volume, and he appeared crestfallen.
“Why would she do that?” Pebble had no visible response, no expression of feeling.
“The city was under siege,” Tarnish replied, and he bowed his head. “The draconequus armies had invaded and their magic made the alicorns of the city go mad. She and Luna resisted through sheer force of will, and Luna used her magic to shield the minds of a precious few ponies that had been rescued. When they had fled to a safe distance, Celestia called down a massive asteroid from the heavens, and dropped it on the city.”
The room went silent, save for the dripping of water in the sink and the tick-tocking of the clock on the mantle. Heads were bowed, and Sumac’s ears drooped. The act was inconceivable, impossible to comprehend. His appetite fled, like butterflies taken by gale-force winds.
“There weren’t many survivors, and the sisters, they hadn’t saved nearly enough ponies. With numbers far too few, they fled, going westward, heading towards the Two Sisters mountains.”
Sumac heard a gasp from his mother, a pained sound, and he worried for her.
“Don’t worry, this story has a happy ending,” Tarnish said, trying to lighten the mood. “We survived and everything was okay.” He smiled—a half-hearted effort—and then added, “I don’t think we’ll be studying the old castle out in the Everfree this spring. My first underwater excavation… this is going to be great.”
“How do you know this?” Pebble was just full of questions this morning.
“Celestia told me.” Tarnish sucked in a deep breath, held it for several long seconds, and then let it whistle out from flared nostrils. “We’re still going to have a good day, okay? I have stuff planned. Everything will be fine and good. Finish your breakfasts and everything will be fine, I hope.”
Sumac wasn’t sure if he was hungry.
And so it was that the resilience of youth made Sumac forget the troubling conversation that occurred during breakfast. With a full stomach, now was the time to study magic, and he had a surplus of teachers. Twilight was humming to herself while she rummaged around in her satchel, and the little colt could hear Spike and Boomer talking to one another.
Vinyl Scratch and Moondancer sat together, sipping tea, and waiting for the lesson to start. Lemon Hearts was deep in some heartfelt conversation with Olive, and the living room was crowded with unicorns. Not just any unicorns, either. Even with no real magic being done, Sumac’s magic sense was almost overwhelming him. The power in this room alone was staggering in scope and scale.
Whatever fun Tarnish had planned, it would have to wait, as Twilight had demanded at least two hours of instruction time. With her, she had brought a troupe of students, foals that Sumac didn’t exactly know. Some were older, some were younger, and all of them were students that Twilight considered ‘promising.’
“Are we gonna learn how to blow stuff up?” a filly asked, and she sounded hopeful.
“No, Gentle Melody,” Twilight replied.
The filly in question stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry.
“Today, we’re going to begin our advanced instruction in shields, as all of you have shown incredible promise with that skill.” Twilight pulled out a stack of bound instruction booklets and held them up over her head. “The information printed in this booklet was written by my brother, Shining Armor, and has been annotated by me. Each of you will be privy to information—”
“My mom used the privy this morning.” At this, there were many giggles.
“—that is out of reach for the common unicorn.” Twilight looked somewhat annoyed, and her sudden scowl silenced the giggles for the most part, but not from Twinkleshine, who continued with defiant snortles. “Miss Twinkleshine, I’ll need to see you after class.”
“Oh noes!” Covering her mouth with her hoof, Twinkleshine feigned disappointment and dismay.
“All these years, Twinkleshine, all these many years, and you haven’t changed.” Twilight sighed these words while her wings fluttered against her sides.
“I know.” Twinkleshine’s eyes glittered with unrepentant glee and many of the students were now snickering. “Hey, remember when Lemon Hearts got that beaker stuck on her head?”
“Okay, class… pay attention. I want all of you to pair up with a responsible adult that you can trust and we’re going to get started.” She turned a withering stare upon Twinkleshine. “You… you get to pass these out. Get to work, slacker.”
Unable to help himself, Sumac burst out laughing.
Staring out the window, Pebble Pie watched the snowflakes fall while heaving a sigh. Sumac was busy doing unicorn stuff, leaving her stuck doing nothing. The back yard would be an impressive garden someday, but it was nothing but snow and emptiness right now. The little statues along the back wall were all broken, crumbling, and in need of replacement.
It was a dull, grey day, the sky was as grey as her mother’s or Octavia’s pelts. It was overcast, and with nothing to do, the sunless sky seemed to amplify the dreariness that hung over Pebble like a shroud. She wondered what her father had planned, and she hoped that whatever it was, it would dispel the doldrums that had set in.
“So, Pebble,” Tarnish said as he sat down beside her. “How does it feel to have a sister?”
“I’m happy enough, I guess.” Pebble continued to stare out the window, but was glad to have her father with her. She scooted over a bit and leaned up against him, happy to have him all to herself. “I like Meg. I hope she likes me.”
“I think she adores you,” Tarnish replied, and his voice was reassuring. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she follows you around, trying to be just like you.”
“I’ve noticed.” She had, in fact, noticed, and it changed how she did things, making her more self-conscious about everything she did. “Now I have to be a good filly, or I will lead my sister astray.” When her father laughed, Pebble relaxed a bit, knowing that her father only laughed a certain way when he was sincere about something, and this laugh was reassuring.
Lifting a foreleg, she wrapped it around her father’s, and she pressed her cheek up against him. She didn’t even come up to his elbow, and while sometimes this made her feel so small and insignificant, right now, at this moment, it made her feel safe, secure, and protected. Her father was big. Not big with muscles, no—her mother had bigger, broader legs than her father, and her neck was thicker too—but her father was tall. He had a distinct advantage of height that allowed him to see danger on the distant horizon.
“Sumac isn’t safe, is he?” Pebble asked.
“He’s safe enough,” Tarnish replied.
“Don’t lie to me. Lying is wrong and if you do that, I’ll stop trusting you. I’d rather have the truth even if it hurts.” Outside the window, the snowfall slowed a bit, and what was coming down now was a light, dusty powder. “They were in our house. There was fighting. I can’t forget what happened.”
“I can’t either.”
She heard her father swallow after saying the words.
“Sumac is as safe as we can get him. I can’t tell you anything in detail, and I hope you understand, but he is being watched, and you are being watched, and everything is as secure as we can get them right now. That’s the truth. Nothing will ever be perfect, but trying to take Sumac right now would be costly.” He drew in a deep breath, sighed, drew in another breath, and continued, “Trixie needs a little time to let her guard down and recover. It’s been very stressful on her and she hasn’t had the time she needs to pull herself together since everything happened. So if you can do anything to help her out, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll try to behave and not be antagonistic.” Pebble felt her cheeks grow warm, and her ears fell to the sides. “Sometimes that happens without me thinking about it.”
“Eh, you get that from me, obviously, but you’ve also got your mother’s dry snark.” After a pause, he kept going: “It feels funny to say that. It still blows my mind that I made you. Nutmeg too.”
“It still blows my mind that my mother let you—”
“That’s my girl!” Tarnish looked down and there was a wide grin on his face. “You keep that up, just make sure to drop those bombs on the right ponies. I’m proud of you.”
Pebble found herself blushing, and she gave her father’s leg tight squeeze. “Thank you.”