//------------------------------// // Epilogue: Carrying the Consequences // Story: Skitter, Scurry and Screech (Iota Force Issue #4) // by The Iguana Man //------------------------------// “And you're sure about this?” Sunny asked her daughter for what felt like the thousandth time. “Yes, Mom, I'm sure.” Icy said, rolling her eyes. Her hooves fidgeted slightly as she stood outside the bathroom door – she didn't want to sit down until she'd had this bath so as not to get too much muck on the carpet. “He's definitely not a bad pony, so we should at least try to find an answer that makes all of us happy. And he's okay with trying it, so... yeah.” “Alright...” Sunny said as she exited the bathroom, her voice making it clear that she was going to take some convincing. “Don't worry about it.” Icy said as she trotted into the bathroom, head held high. She didn't like to be smug, but she felt like she had definitely earned this bath. She put her hooves up on the edge of the tub and looked down. “Everything's go- going... to be...” She trailed off as her eyes widened and her pupils shrank. Her hooves went completely rigid, the tension in her muscles making them vibrate. She stood there, frozen, looking down into the steaming water. It was silly. She knew it was silly. She yelled at herself in her own head that it was silly. It was just a bath, there was no danger at all. She tried to force her hooves to move forward, but they stayed firmly attached to the rim of the tub, screaming at her not to make them move. She heard her mother come in and gasp. “Oh my... Sweetie? Are you okay?” “I... I...” Icy responded, beginning to hyperventilate a little. She wanted to say, tried to say that everything was fine. She certainly couldn't see anything wrong – the water didn't look different than it ever had before, didn't move different, didn't feel different. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, nothing was fine. It was wrong and bad and she didn't know why. Sunny rushed to her side. Out of the corner of her paralysed eye, Icy saw her mother follow her line of sight, gaining a look of understanding. She reached down through the water, eliciting a sympathetic shudder from Icy, and pulled the plug out. For a few moments, as the water receded, Icy felt herself relax, the nervous energy bleeding out of her. Then the water got low enough that she could see it rushing down the plughole and a wave of nausea spread through her. She watched as the water spiralled away and could practically feel it rushing down, flowing in an unstoppable wave through the pipes, pulling anything caught in it along with it, with no way to stop it or escape it or... With a yelp, she fell away from the bathtub, landing in a quivering heap. “I... I...” Icy stuttered, noticing but not caring how pathetic she sounded. “Can... Can I just have a shower instead?” Sunny knelt by her daughter and stroked her hair. “Of course, honey, I'm sorry, I should have realized...” “No!” Icy blurted out, cringing at the slightest hint of her mother blaming herself. “It's not... It's my fault, I... I dunno what's...” “It's okay.” Sunny interrupted her, her voice gently forceful. “You had a traumatic... a bad experience. It's okay to have... issues after something like that. It's not unreasonable, it's not irreversible and it's not your fault. Tomorrow, I'll go and find a good psychiatrist and we can start working on helping you through this.” Icy gulped, nodding rapidly, trying to convince herself as much as her mother. “Okay. But what about now?” “Now?” Sunny said, smiling gently at her daughter. “Now, you have a shower. I'll be right here to help you get everything out of your coat and to help if anything happens. Okay?” “O... Okay.” Icy replied, getting up and willing her wobbly legs forward. It wasn't easy – nothing about this was going to be easy. But... but she told herself she had every reason to believe her mother. With her help – with the help of her family and her friends and everyone else, she could get through this. She had to.