//------------------------------// // Surprise! // Story: House of the Rising Sunflower // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// Upon entering the dining hall, Sundance froze, thoroughly unprepared for what awaited him after his sightseeing trip with Turmeric. He stood in the doorway, the wooden door pressed against his rump, his ears and mouth both hanging limp. Try as he might, he could do nothing to recover, and when he tried to speak, strange throaty wickers were the only sounds to come forth. “Sire, the Milord’s Mother was just telling me some tales, so she was, whilst we had a delightful cup of tea. Aye, she’s a real treasure, she is, full of mirth and a razor-keen wit. And oh, what stories she has to tell.” “Come over here and sit down with me, Sunny.” Sunbeam Shimmer patted the floor just beside her and her hoof made soft, quiet raps against the wood. “I was just talking to your… retainer? Sorry, I’m new to all of this. Quite a shock to find out my son has a retainer.” She paused, her head tilted off to one side, and her golden eyes glittered with mischief. “How shall I address you, Your Lordship?” Sundance tried to back out, but the door had already latched shut. Again, his mother patted the floor beside her, and somehow, he managed to recover from his state of shock. Cucumber was snickering to himself while pouring some tea. Meanwhile, his mother kept patting the floor, beckoning him to come over and sit down. She was wickedly amused, his mother; of course, it was just his misfortune that his mother’s rare sense of humour would show itself now of all times. Officer Mom was a serious, stern mare, and many believed that she had no sense of humour at all—or that, perhaps, it had been surgically removed at some point, as had been suggested around the police precinct. “Oh, you’ve been fired from your job. They sent a courier out to the apartment with a telegram and everything. It seems as though you’ve found another job. Nice work, Sunny. Like I’ve told you, always stay busy and productive, and you’ll stay out of trouble. I don’t abide hooliganism.” One eyebrow angled aggressively, forming half of a commanding ‘V’ below Sunbeam Shimmer’s fiery red-orange mane. Leaning against the table, Cucumber sniggered into his teacup. Dragging his hooves, Sundance shuffled over to his mother, sighing in resignation, and sat down. His mother began right away, brushing him off with her wing, sorting out his mane, and doing everything that moms do after not seeing their sons for a while. There was nothing he could do to stop her, and he worried for Cucumber’s health and safety, because the old unicorn was wheezing fit to split. “Hi, Mom. It’s been a while. I was going to send another telegram, but I’ve been, uh, busy.” When his mother sniffed him, he almost jumped right out of his skin and wondered if he still smelled like perfume. She continued to groom him and when he started to squirm, she slapped his neck with her wing. All at once, everything felt like old times, missed times, and he was relieved to see his mother. “I was just out conducting business, actually. With a business partner. Big plans and all that. Princess Celestia is trusting me to pay off the barony’s debt and I need to make this place profitable.” The suspicious expression and the crinkled muzzle on his mother’s face spoke volumes. “Why are you all scratched and torn up?” his mother demanded, her tone one of annoyed impatience. “Your wing is injured. What happened to you?” Sundance thought of his brief crash through the tree canopy, his terrifying bombing run through the Froggy Bottom Bogg, and his glorious escape back into golden sunlight. Daredevil acts sometimes fell under hooliganism. Sometimes. Most of the time. Almost all of the time. Casting a stern glance in Cucumber’s direction, he said to his mother, “It’s nothing. On the job hazards, that’s all. I did a dangerous delivery but everything turned out fine. I got paid and that’s all that matters.” A low, surly growl could be heard down deep in his mother’s throat. She wrapped her wings around him, pulled him close, and he could feel the rumble within her as she embraced him. She was angry, obviously, but not with him. Not at the moment, anyhow. Saying the magic words, “I got paid,” had done much to mollify her, but now she was clingy and protective. Some things never changed… “Did you get hazard pay? You’d better have gotten some hazard pay. What have I told you about demanding hazard pay? You need to get mad! Be aggressive! Be demanding! Most employers won’t give it unless you explicitly ask for—” “I was paid very well, Mom. Enough to buy four used beehives.” His mother’s throaty growling subsided, but not by much. “I’ll be taking that job once a month. And others. The pay is better, Mom. I made more with one delivery than I did working a whole day with my last job. I’m well compensated.” When his mother eased off a bit, Sundance heaved a sigh of relief. Officer Mom had a strict mercenary policy and getting paid well theoretically made almost anything okay, so long as it wasn’t illegal. “After I got your telegram, I arranged to use some of my vacation days.” Sunbeam returned to brushing off non-existent specks from her son while she spoke. “Flew to Canterlot. Started asking around. Heard stories about some insane pegasus that flew into Canterlot during one of the worst spring blizzards in recent history. Had some trouble believing that was you, because you know better than to be reckless. Heard some stories about why it was done. Eventually, I spoke to a mare named Raven. Had a nice cup of tea with her and Prince Blueblood. Had a chance to meet Princess Celestia’s son, Nuance. He’s a fussy fidgeter, that one. That colt can’t sit still.” In silence, Cucumber began fixing a cup of tea for Sundance. “Sunny…” Something dangerous lurked in his mother’s voice, a danger that Sundance knew all too well. “Yes, Mom?” “I want you to tell me how you’ve somehow managed to gain the sort of flight experience it would take to fly into a storm like that. And land. What have I told you about the boulevard racing and daredevil flying in the city? What have I told you? Do you want to be smokestack pizza? A pile of pegasus giblets scattered in the streets?” “Mom—” “Don’t you dare ‘Mom’ me, Sunny. Nopony flies into a storm like that one without practice. You’re busted, you lying, deceitful, treacherous little cuss.” His mother pulled away, almost snarling, but there was something in her eyes that he could not make out. “You saved a mare’s life, so I’m willing to forgive you, but I’m now aware that you’re up to no good, and I have conclusive evidence that you’ve lied to me.” Pressing her lips together, his mother now wore a ferocious scowl. Still, there was something about her eyes that Sundance could not make out. “A colt sometimes has to break his mother’s heart,” Cucumber said while setting down a steaming cup of tea before Sundance. “I became a soldier. My mother, she didn’t agree. It caused a rift between us, so it did.” Sundance feared his mother would reply with sharp words, perhaps telling Cucumber to mind his own business. Sunbeam Shimmer never took too kindly to others ‘suggesting’ how to parent. But his mother said nothing. Her brows furrowed, she hunched over, sulky, and while he watched, she snatched up her teacup with such a sudden movement that it almost spilled. “Mom, I’m—” “Don’t you dare apologise, Sunny.” Still sulking, his mother hunched down over her teacup and stared down at the table. “I got sent out to a lot of crashes. Dumb young punks. Saw a lot of broken, mangled bodies. Lives cut short before they ever saw their potential. Lived with a constant fear that I’d get sent to a crash scene and I’d find you. The smokestacks at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen were the worst. So many broken necks and shattered spines.” His accomplishment—slaloming the stacks—didn’t seem so impressive now. Sundance knew his mother’s moods were as mercurial and ever-changing as a feral sky. Which is to say, they were quick to change on a whim and with no warning whatsoever. If he was patient, she would pull up and out of this. She was probably a raging torrent of emotion right now, more so than he was. But she was the way she was and he knew where he got his own moodiness from—it was a trait he most certainly didn’t get from his father. These dark clouds would pass and his mother would move to whatever captured her whims next. He felt as though an apology was in order, though perhaps not the one his mother expected. “I’m sorry I didn’t come home to explain things. A telegram was a poor substitute to a proper goodbye. Princess Celestia gave me a job and I took it. I was needed… here… in this place. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I do have competent help.” “I didn’t raise you to be a shirker.” Ripples spread through her cup as she spoke, and Sundance’s mother stared down into the depths of her soothing brown liquid. “Sunny, I’m glad you found a job that makes you happy. If anything, I owe you an apology. This project of yours, I thought it was a waste of time and money. I wanted you to go to college… or trade school. Sometimes, you have to give up some happiness to get by in life, you know? I know how you feel about factory work and office work. That delivery job of yours had lousy pay. You’re too good a worker to be paid so little, and I’m not just saying that ‘cause I’m your mother.” Looking back, it had all been a means to an end. Since his mark had shown up all those years ago, life had been a series of events all leading up to this. His life had been one of preparation, though he hadn’t known it. The dedication and hard work paid off. It felt good to hear his mother acknowledge it—no, it felt great, really, really great, because his mother never gave praise unless it was due. His mother was critical of everything, which made her praise all the sweeter. “Mom… you raised me. It’s because of you that I have this job. This is your hard work paying off. Dad… I mean, well, Dad is Dad. He never said much. Tried to be my friend. Dad was too passive and quiet to be hard on me. I’m not trying to say anything bad about Dad… how did I mess this up?” “No, I understand.” Sunbeam Shimmer lifted her head and turned to look at her son. “Dapper was the nurturer and I was the disciplinarian. You and I need to have a talk about that.” He wondered what his mother meant by that. “Your father is a wonderful pony and my very best friend.” Sundance saw sadness in his mother’s eyes as she spoke. “All of the best parts of you come from your father. Your quiet patience. Your forbearance. You have his sense of duty and obligation. Me, I’m not good at patience. During your long project, you became more and more like your father. That quiet devotion that he has.” “Dad called you brash—” “And Dapper was right. He was absolutely right. He called me a brute. Sometimes, I am. I work a dangerous beat, you know?” Sunbeam shook her head and a sad smile graced her muzzle while laugh lines deepened around the corners of her eyes. “These ponies here in this place, they need you to be like Dapper. You need to be like Dapper, and not a hot-blooded brute like your mother. From what I’ve been told, these ponies here have suffered beneath a brute for long enough.” Now, with all these words fresh in his mind, he had some sense of understanding of why Princess Celestia picked him. A pony like his mother might be a bit too hard on these ponies, and if they became snarky, as they were wont to do, her response would be downright authoritarian. She would organise them, schedule them, and instill order of the worst kind. Flinching from his own thoughts, he turned away, feeling ashamed for thinking this way about his mother. All of the things that made her a good police officer would not make her a good baroness. This brought to his attention that his own policies were rather lax. So far, he’d let his peasants do as they pleased—and plenty of work had been done. Work they were glad to do. He had freed them to work on their own projects because they had a better understanding of what the barony needed than he did. He didn’t need to be commanding, he just had to sit back, watch, offer a bit of heartfelt praise, and do his own part to dig the barony out of debt. Somehow. “Finish your tea, Sunny. Don’t want you resorting to hooliganism. Doubly so now that you’re a baron. You and I, we need to have a private chit-chat. There’s things that I’m itching to say and I have no doubt that you need to hear them.” Hearing this did not make Sundance anxious; in fact, quite the opposite. It put his mind at ease, for some odd reason. He suspected that he knew what his mother wanted to talk about and it would be a relief of sorts to talk. Meeting Hennessy, Rustic, and Turmeric had given him some understanding of himself. Not much, but enough to be curious. His mother, no doubt, wanted to discuss his confusing porn collection. And he was willing to oblige her.