It was strange how words, deeds, and events could change how one felt. Sumac had an awareness of it now, of some great thing that he did not understand. An event had happened, the marriage. Words had been said, exchanged. And with the deed done, he felt different now, reassured perhaps, he wasn’t sure what had changed, but life seemed brighter, better somehow. Perhaps ceremonies held some strange magic that Sumac could not sense, but could detect from effects left in the aftermath.
They were bound now in some clearly defined way, all of them. No longer did they just call themselves a family, but they were a family. The thought of it was too big, too much for Sumac’s mind to contain, to think about, it all left him feeling jittery. Not that he could think, of course, because there was just too much going on. There was music, dancing, food, wonderful smells, laughter, voices raised in conversation and song, there was just too much of everything.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, Prince Gosling himself had called them a family, which left Sumac wondering if everypony who had gathered to be married was now connected in some way. They had all shared a common experience, a moment together. Unaware of his own vacant stare, Sumac was all alone with his runaway thoughts and was almost oblivious to the celebration around him.
A flash of yellow in his vision startled him; when he focused upon it, he saw a lemony foreleg and heard the voice of Lemon Hearts speaking to him. “Sumac? Sumac, are you with us? Trixie, I think somepony is overstimulated.”
“Kiddo?”
Blinking a few times, Sumac’s thoughts collapsed into a pile of confusion and he tried to remember what it was that he had been thinking of. His neck popped when he turned to look at Trixie. First his caretaker, then his master, she had become his parent, but was now something else, though he was uncertain what that was. With the inclusion of Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine, the definition of their relationship had changed again.
“Wow, Sumac is brain-fried,” Trixie said, her voice both knowing and worried. “Kiddo, how much sugar have you had?”
“Not enough,” he replied, gathering up some of his wits. He heard a chuckle from Twinkleshine, but it was a nervous one. “I got to thinking and I… well, I… there’s just so much going on and so many ponies…” Unsure of how to finish what he was trying to say, his words trailed off and he gave his lips a nervous lick.
Beside him, Pebble was destroying yet another plate piled high with cubes of cheese and fudge. When he looked at her, he felt comforted somehow, but his mind was far too jumbled to make out how or why. But at this moment, Pebble was being herself, and focusing on what was important, namely, food. But something—somepony—was missing. Where was Limestone?
Dancing, apparently.
“Kiddo, would you like a drink?”
Trixie’s question got his attention, but it was difficult to focus and harder to make a reply. He swallowed a few times—the jittery feeling persisted something fierce—and after nodding at his mother, he mustered up a response. “I want some seltzer water—”
With an incredulous stare, Trixie made a surprise interruption: “Seltzer water?”
“That’s rather grown up and refined,” Lemon Hearts mentioned in passing while examining Sumac’s face in a worried way.
“Seltzer water,” the colt continued while trying not to lick his dry lips. “Seltzer water with pineapple, coconut, and lime. Yeah!”
“What do we do, Lemon?”
“Give him what he wants?” Lemon Hearts blinked a few times and there was something about her mascaraed eyelashes that was attention snatching. “I’ll go get it. Be right back.”
Before he was aware of it happening, Sumac found himself lifted, a mindful, careful act, and he was levitated closer to Twinkleshine, not Trixie as he expected. He was eased into Twinkleshine’s embrace and when her forelegs wrapped around him, he settled against her, content to be held. Her embrace wasn’t like Trixie or Lemon Hearts, no. Where Trixie was a bit boney and Lemon Hearts was soft fluff, Twinkleshine was a stone gift-wrapped in fine, soft velvet. She wasn’t musclebound, far from it in fact, but what was there was dense and corded, like hard, firm ropes that slid in smooth transitions beneath her pelt.
“I didn’t know what I wanted in life,” Twinkleshine said, her head bowed, her lips close to Sumacs ear. “Not knowing, things got pretty rough for a time. But now…” She heaved a wistful sigh and redoubled her grip upon Sumac so that she might support his body better. “Now, I have two best friends and we’re committed to one another… we’re committed to changing the world, because we’re crazy enough to believe we can. And then there’s you. I had no idea that I wanted a son—truly, I didn’t. But now I have one… I have you… and I get to teach you stuff. Probably the sort of stuff that a father might teach their son. I’m not sure what that makes me in our relationship, but I am bound and determined to figure it out.”
In a rare display of precious foalishness, Sumac made a great effort to wrap his forelegs around Twinkleshine’s neck. Of course, they were a bit too short, but it was the thought that counted. His glasses pressed against his muzzle when his face came to rest against her fuzzy throat. She was wearing perfume—he could not recall ever smelling it on her before—or maybe some of Lemon’s had rubbed off.
“Three best friends,” Twinkleshine said, her foreleg rubbing Sumac’s spine in smooth, even strokes. “They decided to throw in their lot together and raise a son. Each of them were quite different and all of them had a history with one another. In school, two of them were best friends, while the third was a rival… but that’s all in the past. It’s not forgotten though, and in some ways, it’s made the relationship stronger. One struggles to do good, and it’s a rough go for her because hardly anypony believes in her, but she never stops trying. One is far too soft, too tender-hearted. The third might be a bit too hard and has trouble showing her soft side because she’s been hurt. Over and over again, she’s been hurt because of mistakes she’s made and because she wasn’t honest with herself. These three best friends… the one thing that they’ve bonded the most over is their shared love of a little colt.”
The warm fuzzies almost proved to be too much for Sumac to handle.
“Here comes Lemon.” Trixie’s voice came from Sumac’s blind-spot and he could not see what she was doing. “Trixie is feeling brave and is going to ask Lemon for the dance that Trixie never got in school. Trixie also feels like throwing up, because there are far too many butterflies—no, butter-anvils bouncing around in my tummy.”
“Butter-anvils?” With his ear and cheek resting against her throat, Sumac felt Twinkleshine inhale, he could feel the wind moving through her, and then her body shook with soft laughter that came out in bleating, halting bursts. “Butter-anvils! Wait till I tell Lemon that the sight of her gives you butter-anvils in your tummy!”
This felt a lot like a happy ending, a happily-ever-after ripped right from the story books. Something that Sumac—previously up to this point—believed happened only in books. Or maybe this wasn’t an ending at all, but a beginning. Those ponies in those books, they always had castles, or warm, cosy homes, and they always went to bed with full bellies. Now that Sumac thought about it, that constant, gnawing hunger hadn’t been felt in a while. Sure, there were times when he was hungry, but there was food now. Maybe too much food. Enough food that he could eat when he was bored, something he was now prone to doing but always felt just a little bit guilty about.
Trixie was dancing with Lemon Hearts, a shy, awkward, clumsy affair, but also a happy one. Sumac had his seltzer and he was content to lean up against Twinkleshine’s side while watching his mothers dance. Pebble seemed sated for now and was sipping on a mug of hot spiced cider.
Everything was peaceful, perfect, the night was wonderful, that is, until Sumac yawned.
Under these circumstances, yawning could end a pony, and even as Sumac was closing his mouth, Twinkleshine said the following: “It’s way, way past your bedtime, Sumac Apple.”
Was there even a bed for him to be tucked into for the night? For that matter, what was the plan for sleeping, anyhow? Pebble, having witnessed a yawn, now did so herself, and this caused Twinkleshine to yawn. Having seen both Pebble and Twinkleshine yawn caused Sumac to do so again, only he remembered to be polite and to cover his mouth.
“You did this.” Pebble’s tone and gaze was accusatory. She leveled her leaden, deadpan stare upon Sumac and for a moment, she was her mother’s spitting image, but then she succumbed to yet another yawn.
Fearing reprisal, Sumac slipped his lips around his straw and drank more of his seltzer, which was quite refreshing. He also averted his eyes, because Pebble yawning did something to his mind and body, something he just wasn’t prepared to deal with right now. Even as he stared down at the white tablecloth, he thought of Pebble’s yawning and felt warm all over, as if he sat in the sun for too long.
“How are Pebble and I supposed to sleep together if there is no bed?” Sumac asked.
Twinkleshine blinked once, made a strange sound in her throat, blinked again, and then stared off at some far, distant point. “Oh, there’s a bed,” Twinkleshine replied, her voice strained. “We have a guest room with exactly two beds. It’s not a very big room, nor are the beds very big, but uh…”
“What?” Sumac sensed that something was wrong, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Was Twinkleshine upset about the yawning that he caused? Maybe she was. Nothing spoiled a party like going to bed early. Fearful, worried about Twinkleshine’s anger, he tried being cute with the hope that doing so would fix things. “I like sleeping with Pebble, it’s been nice. Sleeping with Pebble and her sister has been great.”
Boomer pulled an ice cube out of Sumac’s drink while the corners of Twinkleshine’s mouth twitched. Something was wrong still and when he lifted his head to try and understand what was going on, he saw that his mother, Twinkleshine, was making funny faces. Pebble was giving him a weird look as well, and the sound of Boomer’s crunching filled his ears.
“Well…” The pearlescent mare heaved a mighty sigh, her cheeks still tensing, and something unknown twinkled in her ice-blue eyes. She barked out a polite sounding cough, squirmed a bit, and then, with a turn of her head, she cast her eyes downwards in Sumac’s direction. “It’s going to be fun, raising you and teaching you the ways of the world, Sumac. You don’t realise it, I’m sure, but you just made my night. I’m going to have fond memories of this for the rest of my life.”
“What’d I do?” he asked.
“Nevermind what you did… you just keep being you, Sumac.”
“Okay.” Confused, he puckered his lips around his straw and had a bit more seltzer while Boomer pulled out a second ice cube.
“Look at them… dancing like dorks,” Twinkleshine said while she gestured in the direction of Trixie and Lemon Hearts with her hoof.
Sensing that there was something to be learned here, Sumac’s ears pricked. “Why aren’t you dancing with them?”
“Well…” She drew out this word to a great length and followed it up with a long pause. “Trixie needs it more than I do. It’s been hard on her… Trixie. Look, we’re not supposed to talk about it with you, but you already know. Since you were taken, she’s been a nervous wreck. So she gets to dance with Lemon and I get to watch you. Because somepony has to watch you and Limestone is busy doing the cyclopean clop-bopper by herself. Look at her go.”
Limestone was, indeed, doing something, but Sumac had no idea what it was.
“You don’t mind spending time with me?” he asked, fearful of what the answer might be.
A single whoop of laughter escaped from the pink-maned mare and then her words came pouring out in a flood. “Sumac, you’re at that age where you’re interesting. You can talk about stuff, ask questions, and you’re trying to figure the world out. If I can get away with telling you the truth, I don’t much care for infant foals. All that crying and pooping and crying and pooping and sure they’re cute and all, but that gets old fast. With you, I got to skip all of that and get right to the good stuff without having to earn it, which makes you pretty much the best son ever.”
Sumac felt a giddy pride come galloping up upon him and he couldn’t help but smile.
“Look at them dance, Sumac… it makes my heart feel all fluttery.”
Brimming with youthful inquisitiveness, Sumac watched. Trixie and Lemon Hearts stood neck to neck, pressed up against one another, and together, they moved in a slow circle. It wasn’t so much dancing as it was swaying, but there was something to it, something grand and profound. From the corner of his eye, he saw that Pebble too, showed interest, and the young colt knew how she felt about dancing.
“That’s worth protecting,” Twinkleshine said under her breath.
Casting a glance up at Twinkleshine, Sumac had an inkling that she was getting something different out of this. He had no idea what it was—he couldn’t even begin to guess—but his intuition told him that she had married for very different reasons than Trixie or Lemon Hearts. Something more than love was at work here and he thought about Princess Luna’s little chit-chat earlier.
Clearly, Twinkleshine was getting something that had profound meaning for her.
Sumac understood that ponies did different things for different reasons, but something about this situation really drove that fact home. He had always been under the impression that ponies married for love—and no doubt, Twinkleshine loved, or she would not have married—but she had motivations that went beyond love. He wished that he understood, but he was stuck with foalish understanding.
Stifling a belch, he set his glass down upon the table in front of him and kept watching.
Annoyed, Boomer lept from Sumac’s neck to the table, where she continued to plunder ice from the mostly empty glass of seltzer. Maybe when she was older, Boomer would understand the importance of this night, and he resolved to tell her all about it. Pebble touched his chin and with gentle motion, turned his head until he saw Gosling dancing with Cadance.
His jaw dropped.
Where others danced for love, some danced just to show off and Sumac was certain that he was seeing some kind of pegasus dominance display gone horribly wrong. Princess Luna watched the commotion with wide, eager eyes, while Princess Celestia’s eyes rolled with enough force and ferocity to turn back the wheels of time, perhaps so this shameful display would be stricken from memory. After a moment, with a light, gentle touch upon his chin, Pebble turned his head once more, and so he found himself looking at his mothers again.
It was one more memory among the many created this special night.