Silence reigned across the royal chamber, nopony knowing what to say as Little Wing finished up her tale. She had gone over everything she was now allowed to remember thanks to Princess Twilight’s intervention, from both her lives. She told them all about Emma, a human girl of unfortunate circumstance who had her life cut short due to the neglect of those who should have cared more than anything… but did not.
She then told them of the day that little girl had died. Fading away, unnoticed to all but one. An otherworldly visitor, looking upon her through pure happenstance and making a life changing decision on a whim.
Penumbra, the alicorn who could see between worlds, and step onto the plain of existence between life and death, though not all the way to the other side. One who had taken her soul and given her a new existence as a small, frail blue filly. A new existence that put her in the path of a pony couple who were the complete antithesis of the kind of parent she had known before. Caring and kind. Encouraging… even to an embarrassing degree.
Of course, they knew all what came after from there. But Little Wing hadn’t stopped, instead going on to describe what went on in her mind during those first days… and afterwards. Her fear of discovery, of rejection due to her human past. The identity of Emma fading away as she lived more life as Little Wing than Emma had, in truth even before reaching the age of thirteen once more.
And then she finally reached the day she lost herself. How she met Penumbra again, and how Penumbra had been angered by her pleas for revival. She admitted that she, in actuality, wasn’t even sure if she’d been right to ask. But nevertheless, Penumbra had answered.
With a price, of course.
But now the price had been revoked, and all Little Wing could now do was stand before her gawping family and await their denials. Then their anger. Then their rejections.
She had lied to them. Deceived them. Wormed her way into their home and lives like a parasite, making them believe she was one thing while the whole time she was something else entirely.
Little Wing had betrayed them, and she knew what came next.
“Best. Human. EVER!”
…OK. Apparently she didn’t know anything at all and should just stop thinking about it.
The outburst had been, predictably, from her mother. The aged pegasus mare had her hooves pressing deep into the mattress, eyes starry and her smile a little too eager.
“I knew there was something special about you!” Windy squeed. “The excellent memories, the drive to excel! The… everything! I mean, I never imagined you were another species who had come back from the dead, but I knew it was something! Ha!”
“Uh…” Little Wing muttered with great dignity and intelligence. “Bwah…?”
Windy saw the confused look of her youngest daughter and gave a ‘tsk’ of bemusement. “Oh come now, did you really think this would change anything? We always knew your birth parents were mean, you just confirmed it.”
“But… I’m not even a pony!”
“Then what are these?” Scootaloo coyly asked as she grabbed onto one of Little Wing’s wings and held it up in demonstration. “I think that’s a wing…? I should know, took me ages to grow mine.”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“Little Wing,” her father spoke up firmly, shutting her down mid-sentence as he placed his hoof on hers. “You were just a child. We’re happy you were taken away from that terrible place, you’re our daughter. We saw you go to school, grow up, get married…”
“I had a whole other life before I met you. I wasn’t even truly a foal. Doesn’t that bother you?”
“It is a lot to take in…” Windy Whistles admitted. “I never would have guessed, you were so small…”
“Very small,” Bow confirmed. “I remember when we first found you. You were crying. Why?”
“I was… I was scared,” Little Wing told them, curling up a little. “I had no idea where I was, or what would happen to me. Dear Celestia, I had never felt more terrified.”
“At first glance, we’d figured you were a scared child abandoned by neglectful parents who’d left you for dead,” Bow stated, sighing. “Pretty on the mark, weren’t we?”
Little Wing didn’t answer, but neither could she quite meet the gaze of either of the pegasi who’d taken her in and raised her as their own. But then she felt a hoof turn her head up towards them, and she saw both Windy and Bow looking at her with no small amount of concern.
“…Daddy…” Little Wing muttered as she accepted a loving embrace from the both of them. “Mama…”
“Hey, we’re here,” Windy cooed. “We don’t care where you came from, and who. That’s never mattered. Ever.”
Little Wing gave a tearful nod as she broke away from the embrace, before wiping the tears away with a small chuckle. “Ugh, some Wonderbolt I am, breaking down like this. Glad Spitfire isn’t here to see it.”
“It’ll be our secret,” Scootaloo assured her. “I’d like to meet this Penumbra, though. Nopony messes with my little sis!”
Little Wing thought to stop Scootaloo’s crusade right there, but instead decided to let it be with a shake of her head and a small laugh. Then she turned her head towards the remaining ponies who had yet to speak up, and her eyes met that of Rainbow Dash.
“And you…?”
“And me what?” Rainbow asked with a shrug. “So you were born a human, big deal. I’m kinda sorta best buds with a griffon. See? I get around.”
Well, what did she expect from loyalty incarnate?
Rainbow Dash gave Little Wing a small smile, before glancing at the clueless Sky Dancer still sitting on her back. “Besides, I don’t think Sky’ll care all that much. So you got her vote.”
“Lubub!” Sky Dancer babbled in the affirmative.
Little Wing felt herself getting emotional again. “You guys, I… I don’t even know why I was so scared of you all finding out now.”
“Yeah, you can stop that crap,” Rainbow Dash affirmed. “We’re sisters, right? Come on, Squirt. Did ya really think some mystic alicorn stuff would change that?”
Little Wing gave her a slightly embarrassed sheepish grin in response. “Kinda?”
“Seriously? I couldn’t ditch you if I tried. You’re practically glued to my hoof.”
“Er, thanks…?” Little Wing assumed that was a compliment, just worded… well, in the way Rainbow Dash would word things.
“But really, Wing,” Rainbow Dash said in a softer tone. “You and me? We’ve got each other’s backs, forever. Got that?”
“Yeah. I love you, sis.”
“Love ya, you featherbrain.”
Her sister. Her parents. Her subdued humanity hadn’t change them. For all her fears, they still looked at her with the same eyes. If just a little more understanding.
That just left one more pony.
“Misty…?” Little Wing called out to the silent mare, seeing her leaning against one of the bedroom’s walls while staring out into space. “So, uh… yeah.”
The room became awkwardly silent, all eyes moving between the married pair as a sense of unease began to descend.
“Please talk to me…”
Another moment passed, and then Misty finally looked at Little Wing. Her eyes were still red from past tears, but no more were breaching her eyes. In fact, Little Wing was having a hard time telling what emotions the mare was feeling.
“Can I speak to you alone?” she finally asked, not breaking her gaze.
Little Wing looked between her family, before giving them a nod. They sent her silent looks that said they’d be right outside if she needed them, and then they reluctantly began to exit the room until only Little Wing and Misty Gust remained.
And then there was more silence.
Misty Gust seemed to study Little Wing, the latter shifting nervously from her place on the bed. An eternity of quiet that assaulted Little Wing’s ears, ears wilting further by the second as she braced herself for whatever her wife had to say.
Misty Gust took one step forwards, and then kept on moving onto she had gently made her way up to the bed.
“So… Emma, huh?”
“Yeah…” Little Wing muttered in response. “Though, er, Little Wing is fine. I’ve kinda gotten used to that one.”
Misty Gust didn’t respond, only sighing as she hopped up onto the bed next to Little Wing before collapsing. She played herself out on her back, letting off an irritatred groan into the heavans.
“You know, I never thought this is how the whole memories thing would end,” Misty Gust said, Little Wing remaining silent. “What happened to you… I didn’t know what to do. I was so scared you wouldn’t love me again, that our lives had just been messed up for good.”
“And then I get them back, but I mess it up anyway through the human thing,” Little Wing finished for her.
“You haven’t messed anything up,” Misty refuted as she sat up. “It’s just… here is me worrying about how I will handle things with a wife that doesn’t remember me, while there’s you who has grown up with terrible life that led to your death, come back only to be murdered by a griffon only to come back a second time with no memories of yourself.”
Misty sniffed, wiping away a new tear trying to fight its way to freedom. “I’m all ‘woe is me’, when I really had no idea…”
“Hey, stop that,” Little Wing asked of her, wrapping her forehooves and wings around her wife, entering into a gentle embrace. “There’s nothing wrong with how you felt, given what happened. Besides, I’m the idiot who kept the secret.”
“Yeah, you are an idiot,” Misty agreed with a light laugh. “But still, I don’t know whether I was more worried for you or myself… I feel like a terrible pony.”
“Takes one idiot to know another,” Little Wing gently refuted. “I remember a mare who stuck by my side even though I didn’t know who she was. Another pony might have run off during a time like that, seeing no future. You’re not a terrible pony, Misty. No more than I’m still that girl from two decades past.”
“You think so?”
“That girl never thought she’d have somebody like you. Or anything. Misty, I love you.”
“I love you too,” Misty replied with a sniff, nuzzling Little Wing lightly. “And… all this talk of the past has gotten me thinking about the future too.”
“What do you mean?”
“The past week, I had no idea where we were going,” Misty mused, slowly pulling away from Little Wing and looking her in the eyes while keeping hold of her forehooves with her own. “I do now. And I want…”
“What…?” Little Wing enquired quietly. “What do you want?”
Misty took a breath in, and then let it out again before speaking her mind.
“I want a foal.”
A fuse blew somewhere in Little Wing’s mind. She rolled the word around in her head, again and again like a washing machine.
Foal.
Such a weird word, huh? Sounds like fool, only cuter. Could be used in the same context, but she didn’t think Misty was calling her an idiot again. No, she was talking about the cuter one. Kid. Child. Baby. Little screaming things who raid cookie jars.
She wanted a cookie now.
Where was she again? Oh yeah, foal.
“Little Wing…?” Misty called out hesitantly.
“A foal?” she parroted in turn. “You and me? Parents? Like a Sky Dancer kind of foal?”
“Yeah,” Misty confirmed. “I want to be a mother, and I think you do too. And after all this… I want that future with you. To share in this with you.”
Little Wing let out a breath, giving her mind a moment to reboot. Was this how Misty felt when she asked for her hoof in marriage? Only less ceremony and more nappy changing.
“A foal…” Little Wing mused to herself. “Wow. That’s… huge. Filly or colt? Unicorn, pegasus or something? Adoption or…?”
“We could adopt,” Misty confirmed. “Hm, could you imagine a little griffon running around the house?”
“We’d have to full the fridge with meat products.”
“Or… we could do it another way,” Misty suggested. “Go through the full thing, like Dash did.”
“So go to the hospital and arrange the, er, thing?” Little Wing asked. “For one of us? I mean, just some random…”
“I don’t think I want it like that,” Misty interrupted. “If we do it that way, I want it to be from a source we can trust.”
“Well, that’s not exactly a small ask,” Little Wing pointed out. “If we want a foal, who on Equus are we going to ask for something like that?”
Misty pondered a moment, before an idea popped into her head…
“You want me to do what!?” Silver Breeze blurted out incredulously. “A foal? Seriously!?”
He was sitting in the living room of his home alongside Misty Gust and Little Wing. He had been relieved to have them show up with Little Wing’s condition fully cured, safe in the knowledge that his friend had regained all her lost memories and recovered from her injuries. What he had not been expecting, however, was that!
“We wouldn’t have to, you know, do anything…” Little Wing assured. “I don’t think you’re either of our type.”
“I noticed a long time ago,” Silver Breeze deadpanned. “But why me?”
“Well, you’re a close friend. And we trust you,” Misty meekly informed him. “Ironic, I know.”
“Tell me about it…” he muttered, trying to wrap his head around the question. “This isn’t something we can just brush under the rug if we go through with it. It’ll be my foal to and… I don’t know.”
“If you’re out, you’re out,” Little Wing assured him. “We don’t want to pressure you. But you were our first choice.”
“You really want this foal, huh?”
“We talked about it,” Little Wing confirmed. “And yeah, we do. Everything has just gone so wrong recently, but this… We want it to go right. I’ll admit that it’s scary. But I want this, I really do.”
“We both do,” Misty confirmed. “And we didn’t want the father to be some random stallion we’ll never meet, not knowing anything about them…”
Silver Breeze leaned back in his seat, mulling over the proposition in his head. Little Wing could see that he was highly conflicted and wondered just what it was he was thinking. They had come there knowing there was a good chance he’d so no, that he wouldn’t even want a kid never mind that it was as a favour to other ponies. Little Wing herself was still trying to wrap her head around it, and yet there they were…
“…Could I see them?” he asked slowly. “If I go through with this, would I be a father or just some stranger who they might see around every now and then?”
“If you go through with this, whichever you prefer,” Little Wing responded. “If you want to be in their life, we won’t stop you. Why would we?”
Silver Breeze was silent for a few moments, his mind slowly coming to a consensus. “I would be lying if I said I’d never thought about parenthood. I’m just… not sure I’d be good at it.”
“Can’t be any worse than either of our birth parents,” Little Wing responded with a small smile.
Silver Breeze had to concede that point, but still… He would never have imagined himself in such a position a few years back, when he still hated the mares asking something so personal of him. He was hesitant to even consider it, and yet he was considering it. And a not-so-small part of him wanted to say yes.
“Two mothers and a father, it’d be the most loved foal in Cloudsdale,” he lightly joked to himself. “Ah, to Tartarus with it.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“If you two want a kid that bad, and I get to see them every now and then. Then yeah, I’m in.”