Dreamless slumber bled into warmth and ruddy light as my eyes squinted open. Sun Squall was cuddled up beside me, fast asleep with her muzzle tucked under mine, and a blanket was draped over us. A bed of glowing embers heated my other flank. I lay still for a while, listening to Sun Squall's slow breaths, and the odd snap and crackle from the fireplace.
I needed to go, so I eased myself off the couch and quietly walked to the front door. Sun Squall snortled and smacked her lips but slept through my escape.
Stars twinkled and reflected off a mirror-smooth sea as I hoofed it to the outhouse. It was a beautiful calm night and I felt strangely peaceful and relaxed — drained. Even more drained as I walked back. Should I return to Mayree's and a warm bed next to Sun Squall or just scuttle to my cold shack? A routine day of firing up the stove, porridge for breakfast, and a morning of hard labour, alone on my beloved sloop, might keep my low mood at bay.
I wasn't sure I could face Mayree and Sun Squall after how pathetic and needy I'd been yesterday.
Shame won out and I'd started toward my shack when I noticed Mayree standing on her porch. A tall silhouette in a long shapeless nightdress against the dim glow from her living room window.
"Good morning", I said while joining her. My throat felt sore and raw.
She covered her mouth with a hand as she yawned. "You call this morning?"
I chuckled and said, "You know I'm usually up and out to sea by now. Why are you awake?"
"Mmf… I couldn't get to sleep." She rested her hand on my head, behind my ears, and I hardly felt any urge to shy away. "This is going to sound mushy, but I was worried about you."
I snorted and asked, "Worried about me or worried about me in your home?"
Her grip tightened in my hair and she admitted, "A bit of both."
"What did you hear about me?"
She shrugged and went back to stroking my mane. "Somepony in the pub said she'd heard that you killed a foal and another said she'd heard it too so there must be some truth to it. Then some loon shouted that they were both liars and idiots." She chuckled and tugged on one of my ears, "That was Squall, by the way. I think she likes you."
I made a noncommittal snort.
"It sounded like a load of cupcakes to me. You're nice, if kind of grumpy, and there are a lot of stupid rumours. Like, when I moved here there was one going around that I lured foals over here to cook them for supper."
"You don't, do you?"
I snickered as she smacked the back of my head.
There was a quick streak of white as a star fell, but I didn't bother making a wish.
"So… What really happened? Why did your mom leave?"
I glanced up at her face, though it was hidden in the shadow of her amazing bed-mane. "I'll tell you over breakfast. Squall should hear it too and I don't want to tell it twice."
She snorted and said, "You're assuming I'll make you breakfast?"
"I can cook." If you like porridge.
"No, I'll do it. You wouldn't be able to reach the stove." She stretched her fores over her head and I heard her yawn and a pop from her back. "I'm going to put coffee on and grab a shower."
I watched her go inside and wondered what 'grabbing a shower' meant. A pegasus could fly up and corral a cloud but humans couldn't fly. Could they? Maybe she had a tamed cloud in one of the rooms? I shrugged and stargazed until they faded into a lightening sky.
Breakfast was toast and scrambled eggs. Mayree fried strips of something fatty that smelled horrible and rancid, but she certainly enjoyed eating it.
Probably meat.
Best not to ask.
Her delicious coffee had Sun Squall buzzing in her seat and constantly fluffing her wings. If I was going to tell them I'd better do it now because she wouldn't sit still for much longer.
Or maybe I could not tell them?
Was that an option any more?
My exquisite cup clinked on its saucer and I cleared my throat to get their attention.
"It happened when I was a little colt, just after I got my cutie mark. My band lived in this house and-"
"You did?" asked Sun Squall. "I thought it was your cousin's place."
I nodded and said, "It belonged to my cousin before Mayree, but my parent's band lived here before that — this was years and years before you moved to Smile Harbour." I had a sudden idea and told them, "Hang on a moment…"
They gave me puzzled looks as I ducked out the front door to quickly trot to my shack. When I returned I had a treasured old black-and-white photo in my lips, which I carefully set on the table between them.
"So, that's my sire, Weigh Anchor", I pointed to the burly dark-furred earth pony with a studly short beard on his square jaw. The photo was taken in their bedroom, now Mayree's, with all of us clustered around my parent's old cast iron bed. It didn't do dad justice, or maybe it was just a colt's fading memories that made him seem smaller and less heroic in the wrinkled photo.
I pointed a hoof at the delicate, spotty-coated unicorn mare laying propped up against pillows with a swaddled newborn foal held in her fores. "My mother, Berry Fizz, I got my dapples from her, and their wife-" I moved my hoof to point to the tall, sleek pegasus standing on the other side of the bed.
"Your father had two wives?" Mayree stared at me while her fuzzy-caterpillar eyebrows climbed halfway up her forehead.
I blinked at her.
What was she so surprised about?
"Sort of? My sire and mother married and later they married Silver Lining."
"jεsμs, we didn't write anything like that in the show. The parents would have flipped their sнιτ! Maybe some fan stories did leak into this place after all."
I tapped a hoof on the table, "Or this place inspired some of your fan story writers?"
"Same difference."
"My point exactly. Anyway, I also had a little sister-", I pointed at mom and her newborn, "-Pink Lace. She was-", I choked for a moment and forced it out, "Was a beautiful little filly. Bright, sweet natured, and always asking me questions about everything. If I didn't know the answer I'd make up a silly story to entertain her.
"If our sire was my hero then I was hers."
"And that's you?" asked Sun Squall while pointing at the slightly blurry colt by dad's hooves.
I had a huge grin in the picture and they'd had a hard time making me sit still long enough to take it.
"Yes."
"Oh my stars! You were a real cutie", Sun Squall cooed.
I felt a blush creep up my ears and snatched up the photo. While they both had a good giggle I walked back around the table to sit down.
After a last look I carefully set my photo aside and said, "We weren't rich, but we got by. Like me, my sire reaped the sea to put food on the table. He'd take me out with the other fisherponies to teach me where the best grounds were and what bait or net or trap to use. Mom worked in the pub and Silver Lining made a few bits foal sitting. There were always lots of other colts and fillies here to play with after work was done.
"After I got my cutie mark-", I nodded my head at the red boat with white sails on my flank, "-my sire bought me a little dinghy and I'd give rides to my friends and Pink Lace. She loved it almost as much as I did. We stuck to the harbour most days but when it was calm, like today, I'd sneak us out to play on the beach."
Sun Squall asked, "The seapony beach?"
"Yes."
I paused for a swallow of coffee but it did nothing to clear the lump from my throat.
"One day I was horsing around on the beach-", Mayree hid a smile behind her hand, "-with a couple of other colts when one of them noticed my sister was missing.
"She'd been playing with her ball in the surf.
"We called her name and frantically scoured the beach looking for her, but the waves had washed away her hoofprints and there was no sign of her. Even her ball had vanished. None of us were pegasi, so we sailed to the harbour and alerted the Coast Guard. Though they searched for days there was nothing to find.
"My parents were heartbroken, of course, and I got my rump paddled and the dinghy was taken away. None of that hurt as much as losing my sister."
Sun Squall sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry, Mainstay. That must have been just awful."
I grimaced and sadly told her, "That was only the beginning."
"Oh, no! No, I don't want to hear any more!" She mantled her wings and ducked her head beneath one.
Mayree scooted back from the table and crawled around to Sun Squall's side. She looked ungainly and weird moving about on her hands and knees like that. She wrapped her fores around Sun Squall and half-pulled her into her lap.
"Go on", she said as she stroked Sun Squall's back.
I sighed and collected my thoughts. I should make this quick and as painless as possible.
"You know what this town is like with its rumours. Pretty soon stories spread that I'd drowned my sister or that she'd been taken by seaponies.
"My sire latched onto the seapony story. There are legends of them luring ships onto rocks, saving drowning sailors, and stealing foals to turn them into seaponies to raise as their own. He dreamed that Pink Lace had been taken and was still alive somewhere, living a happy life as a seapony. He asked me and the other colts if we'd seen any when she disappeared, but none of us had. He got angry, shook me, and yelled at me. I was scared and confessed that I'd seen one, even though I hadn't.
"It became an obsession for him and he argued about it with my mother. She knew I was lying and blamed me for not keeping an eye on my sister. She didn't want false hope that her little filly was still alive, just something to bury and a gravestone to mourn at.
"Silver Lining left us — hopped off the cliff and flew away to find somewhere happier to live, I guess. Nopony trusted our band to foalsit anymore, anyway."
Now for the worst part.
I glanced at the photo and dad's proud, beaming smile sent a stab of pain through my heart.
"My s-sire-" I coughed. "My sire went out with the fishing fleet one morning and as the sun rose, he took off his cork vest, and stepped overboard. I don't know if he wanted to drown or if he'd deluded himself into thinking seaponies would take him to Pink Lace. He didn't leave a note or talk to anypony about it.
"Mom sold the house to her sister, disowned me, and left.
"My aunt saved me from the Los Pegasus orphanage, but I grew up into a wild colt — I earned every screaming argument and smack upside my head. After dropping out of school I crewed aboard the town's fishing fleet until I came of age. Spent my savings and inheritance on a second-hoof sloop and sailed her all over the South Luna Ocean before dragging my salty tail home.
"The rest, you already know."
I panted through my nose as my throat finally clogged up.
Sun Squall sobbed into Mayree's chest and I felt lower than a skate's belly for making her cry. Mayree's eyes glistened with tears she had yet to shed and she held out her left fore and waved her hand in invitation.
I plodded around the table and let her draw me against her side.
I nuzzled Sun Squall and wept over poor Pink Lace.