//------------------------------// // Chapter 42 // Story: Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals: Winter Break // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// Lemon Hearts must have spent a great deal of time wrapping this gift in the blue and silver paper. Each fold, each crease was perfect, as if it had been pressed with an iron. The gift itself had a satisfying heft to it and inside pieces of something could be heard clunking together. The box was long, with a curious width and depth. Sumac wanted very much to open it, but he hesitated. “It’s not Hearth’s Warming,” he said to Lemon Hearts. In response to which she shrugged and said, “Who cares?” The house around Sumac creaked as the wind howled, no doubt wanting to be inside where it was warm. In the grate, coal made sizzling sounds as it burned and this, along with the scent of hot spiced apple cider gave the room an atmosphere that Sumac would forever associate with holidays as well as togetherness. When he turned his head a little to look over in Pebble’s direction, he felt a slight catch, a twinge in his neck, but it wasn’t bad enough to really pay attention to. Pebble was watching and waiting. “Open the box, Sumac.” Trixie sounded quite insistent and she made an impatient gesture with her hoof. “Lemon would not show me what it was and I’ve been dying to know.” “Yeah, open it.” Twinkleshine pulled Trixie closer with one foreleg while gesturing at Sumac with the other. “You’re the only foal I know that has trouble opening presents. It’s not right, Sumac.” Even Boomer seemed impatient, sitting in a nest made of shredded gift wrapping in a now empty hat box that Pebble had already plundered. The new sun hat would be lovely come spring. When Boomer fidgeted, the sounds of paper and ribbons rustling could be heard. Megara sat just behind her, and was no doubt tempted to try and bat at the enticing pile of scrap. “None of you have any discipline whatsoever,” Maud deadpanned. “The whole point is the waiting. The anticipation. You’re supposed to be tortured by the waiting. Torture is good in this instance.” “Yeah,” Cloudy said, echoing her daughter’s sentiment. But Limestone seemed to disagree. “No!” Igneous, sighing, tossed a ball of wadded up wrapping paper, which bounced off of the back of Limestone’s head, and when she turned around, Igneous did his best to look innocent while Tarnish began snickering at Limestone’s annoyance. Sumac watched all of this in overwhelmed silence, as there were too many ponies in one room, too much stimulation, too much to take in all at once. Maud, perhaps championing the cause of waiting until Hearth’s Warming, had more to say. “None of you have any patience. Try being pregnant for eleven months and waiting for that special day to arrive. That… that is torture.” To distract Maud from her cause, Tarnish pulled her close, gave her a squeeze, and looked down into her eyes while she looked up at him. “How about I unwrap you?” “That would be fine,” Maud replied. “Right here and now, in front of everypony. This smock of mine is coming off.” “No!” Pebble made a fantastic grimace of protest and then shielded her eyes with her foreleg while turning away from her parents. Limestone kicked the wadded up wrapping paper away from her and Megara, unable to resist the temptation, pounced upon it. She batted it around, to and fro between her broad front paws, until she gave it a hearty smack and it shot beneath the sofa. Not thinking of the consequences of her actions, she launched herself after it, determined to follow it into the darkened shadows beneath the sofa, only Megara was far too big to fit into such a small, confined space. With a cry of alarm, the sofa was overturned, dumping its occupants in a big fuzzy pile… The unopened box beckoned. Now that the disastrous catastrophe caused by Megara had been sorted out, there was still the matter of Lemon Heart’s unopened Hearth’s Warming gift and Sumac examined the present with a squinty, critical eye. Not far away, Maud was holding Megara and wasn’t letting go no matter how much the mischievous manticore spawn squirmed. To anypony observing, to any adult observing, it was obvious that Megara wasn’t trying too hard, but offering up token resistance, which was rather expected from one’s young. There was just too much temptation; wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, dangly things, things that rustled, things that could be batted about, all of these things were objects that Megara wanted to play with. As the overturned sofa had shown, each of these things were a hazard to be wary of. Pinny, who seemed to share her son’s penchant for taunting fate, dangled a curly bit of ribbon just out of Megara’s reach, causing it to bob up and down, an act that made Maud’s job far more difficult. Pebble, sullen and sulky about taking a tumble, glared at her sibling but said nothing. “Open the box, Sumac.” There was a curious quality to Tarnish’s voice and hearing it caused Cloudy to smile. “Don’t just sit there looking at it, open it.” “Let the boy enjoy the moment in his own way,” Igneous said to his son-in-law. “You know,” Tarnish began, “I seem to recall a few months ago… somepony was really impatient and wanted more grandfoals. And this somepony said to me, ‘Son, don’t just sit there looking at them, get busy doing what needs to be done.’ You caused poor Octavia to go into hiding.” “That’s different,” Igneous replied while Megara bonelessly stretched out her body to take a swipe at the ribbon Pinny kept teasing her with. “When we discussed the matter of adding to the family, I didn’t know anything about this artificial insemination business that you had planned. I thought you’d go about it the old-fashioned way. Having to go to Manehattan didn’t make much sense to me at the time.” This was interesting. Sumac’s eyes strayed from his gift and he glanced in the direction of the fascinating conversation taking place between Igneous and Tarnish. There was a faint tickle-prickle when Boomer lept up onto his back, and then she settled into place so she could make a mess of Sumac’s mane. “You talk about adding to the family before adding to the family?” Sumac asked and he saw that his question caused the adults in the room to all take turns looking at one another. This was one of those questions, and now Sumac could see that everypony was trying to figure out who would answer—but which answer, and why? “Well yeah…” With the way that every eye suddenly turned on Limestone and how every ear pricked, Sumac knew that Limestone was being graded. She was about to say something adult in nature, something complicated, complex, and nuanced. Limestone was about to have a defining moment where she proved her worth as an adult—and Sumac’s rapt attention was held by how everypony waited. “We’re all a family,” Limestone continued, “and everything we do affects one another. Discussing stuff is just being considerate of each other’s needs. Sometimes, Tarnish, Maud, Octavia, and Vinyl go off on trips and we’re the ones doing the foalsitting, so what they do affects us in a profound way.” With a soft cough, Twinkleshine cleared her throat and held up her hoof to interrupt the conversation. “This isn’t the getting the gift opened. Sumac, just open the darn thing!” “But… I like learning about family stuff.” Sumac’s ears fell but he lifted his head with a bit of effort. “In two days, you’ll be getting married and I’ll have a family. I want to know stuff.” “And I want a son that can rip open Hearth’s Warming gifts!” Twinkleshine’s expression became one of intense pleading. “It’s like some kind of torture!” “Lemon, you did this to us!” Trixie whirled around to face the yellow mare by her side and there was laughter from several of the ponies in the room. “You knew this would happen! Why would you do this to us, Lemon? Why are you such a sour mare?” This got a few snickers, and Pinny failed to pay attention to just how much she was bobbing the length of ribbon in front of Megara. With a Tartarian yowl, the leggy chocolate brown manticore spawn bonelessly slipped free from the stony fortress that was Maud’s embrace and launched herself at her grandmare, Pinny, by kicking back with her hindpaws against Maud’s barrel. Maud toppled over into Tarnish, Tarnish fell over onto Octavia, Octavia’s head conked into Vinyl’s—which made a hollow coconut bonk—and Vinyl’s glasses were knocked askew. A living coiled spring, Megara sprang into action and like a ribbon-seeking missile, she pounced upon the ever-so-tempting strand of holiday ribbon held by her grandmother. Megara scored a strike against Pinny Lane and bowled her over, right into Cloudy and Igneous, who were wedged in tight at the end of the sofa together. Sumac watched in awe with all thoughts of his holiday gift forgotten… “I thought I had a grip on her—” “Just like Doctor Caballeron thought he had Tarnish tied up and totally subdued that one time?” Octavia rubbed her head with one hoof while giving Maud a fine Grittish squint. Upon saying this, three mares all turned in unison to look up at Tarnish. Octavia, Vinyl, and Maud all stared at him now with such intensity that Sumac could not help but squirm. What had Tarnish done wrong and why was he the center of attention. Mares were mysterious creatures, fickle, but they often had their reasons—if only there was some way to understand them and figure them out. “This is your fault,” all three mares said together as one. “What’d I do?” Tarnish demanded, going on the defensive. “And who can prove it?” “Megara just mooked us,” Octavia said, going first. “Mook on mook violence,” Vinyl added, speaking in Octavia’s voice while she rubbed the lump on her head. “She just wrecked a roomful of ponies, and I only know of one other pony that does that on a regular basis.” “She doesn’t get it from me,” Maud continued in the flattest deadpan imaginable. Unconcerned about the conversation, Megara batted the length of ribbon about the floor. “She’s slippery and she can slide around inside of her skin,” Tarnish said while trying to defend himself. “That doesn’t come from me—” “This does not address the fact that your daughter—our daughter—just clobbered a whole sofa’s worth of ponies and did so with remarkable ease. It’s like she wasn’t even trying.” Octavia’s lower lip now protruded in a refined, posh pout and her tail flicked from side to side. “I’m kinda proud of that—” Octavia stomped her hoof and let out a powerful snort. “That’s an admission of guilt!” “I don’t care! I’m still proud! Try to stop me!” “Ugh!” Along with a petite grunt, Octavia rolled her eyes and shook her head. Unable to hold back any longer, Sumac began chortling and was joined by Pebble… Almost closing his eyes, Sumac leaned into Lemon Heart’s velvet embrace and allowed himself to be held without struggle. She smelled like tea, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and other spicy things. Above all else, Lemon was warm and he fondly recalled when they had first met. Even though that was a bad day, it was a good day in hindsight. Some of the ponies had cleared out and now, Sumac didn’t feel quite so overwhelmed. He could hear their voices in the kitchen, their laughter, all of it happy sounds. Trixie was now sipping a cup of tea, while Twinkleshine was enjoying a frothy cup of eggnog laced with brandy. A single sip of which had left Sumac fuzzy-headed in a good way. “I don’t know what it is,” Pebble said in a low, soft voice that did not disturb Sumac or make him jump. “But I have a few ideas of what it might be. Lemon Hearts came to me and asked a few questions.” In silence, Sumac lifted up his gift, gave the ribbons a gentle tug, undid the bows, and freed the box from the outermost decorations. He could cheat right now and use his telekinesis to feel around inside of the box, but what fun would there be in that? Lemon Hearts used no tape to wrap the gift, just super tight creases, tight folds, and a couple of well-placed magic tacks that held everything together. With great care, Sumac undid these and the wrapping paper slipped right off. Within was a box and on the box… was an airship. This was a model airship that had to be assembled—a working model airship complete with a boiler, an electrical system, working airscrews, and a nacelle that could be filled with Celestium. To be specific, it was the HEMA Courageous, a ship that Sumac actually knew about, because Trixie had taken him to the monument just south of Manehattan, or perhaps it was just north of Fillydelphia. As the story had it, the HEMA (Her Equestrian Majesty’s Airship) Courageous was stationed just off the coast when a fleet of griffon sky pirates had come to do some coastal raiding. Alone, outnumbered, the Courageous had moved to intercept the incoming fleet, with the intention of buying time for Equestria’s defenses to be marshalled. In the following battle, fourteen enemy vessels were sunk and the Courageous was mortally wounded. Even though the ship was on fire and was having a hard time remaining in the sky, the Courageous still had a little left to give. The captain, an odd fellow by the name of Spiderhawk, gave the order that no captain ever wants to give. RAMMING SPEED! After that, he gave his crew the order to abandon ship, the captain’s first mate disobeyed and stayed behind to fight the fire so that the captain could steer what was left of the ship. Captain Spiderhawk slammed the Courageous into the pirate’s command ship and the explosion could be seen from both Manehattan and Fillydelphia. It was a story that Sumac adored and spent whole hours imagining in his head while trying to go to sleep in the wagon he once called home. “It’s wonderful,” Sumac whispered to Lemon Hearts. “You can load the cannons with a little black powder and they’ll go bang,” she replied. “When the holidays are done and everything has settled down, we’ll put it together. I want this to be something special that we do together, Sumac. Just you and I—” “That’s not fair, I want to play with boats too!” Twinkleshine tossed her head back to get her pastel pink mane out of her eyes and she gave Lemon a pleading stare. Lemon sighed out a worn, defeated response: “Fine.” “I too, wish to play with boats.” “Okay, fine, Trixie, but it isn’t fair to Sumac if you two constantly stay busy. If you two can’t take time out of your busy schedules Sumac and I will be boat-building without you.” “That’s fair, Lemon,” Trixie replied. “Yeah, that’s fair.” Twinkleshine offered up a nod of agreement. Exerting a fair bit of effort, Sumac gave Lemon Hearts’ neck a nuzzle and by doing so, he gave himself a wicked case of the tinglies. He continued, enjoying the warm, fuzzy, tingly feeling, and felt Lemon’s foreleg tighten around him. In just two more days, she would be his mother in a meaningful, legal sort of way, but she was already his mother right now.