//------------------------------// // 11. Mother/Father // Story: The Name of Our Mistakes // by ObabScribbler //------------------------------// 11. Mother/Father Posy had to hurry to keep up with Luna’s long stride. The moon rode high in the night sky, surrounded by constellations that she used to admire when she was a filly. Huddled in her wagon back then she never could have imagined that someday she would be walking beside the pony who arranged them, much less than the princess would actually seek her out for such a walk. Luna strode angrily ahead. Though she had said she wanted to talk when she came to the bedchamber Posy shared with two other mares, she had spoken little and seemed more intent on putting as much ground between herself and the castle as possible while on hoof. Several times her wings beat reflexively at whatever she was thinking and Posy assumed she was about to fly off and leave her. She would not have been offended. The nobility had their own rules and royalty another set again. It was not for a commoner like her to understand what it was like to be a ruler, nor the pressures that might cause a princess to demand a night-time walk through the grounds of her own castle. Suddenly Luna stopped and breathed out a harsh breath. Posy drew beside her but hesitated before she got too close. When she had told her roommates of the stroll she had taken with the princess only a week ago, they had grown wide-eyed and asked whether she had observed the proper rituals for how to act around royalty. Posy had been forced to admit that she had not, and even when she protested that Princess Luna didn’t seem to mind, her roommates had declared her insolent and uncouth and refused to speak to her. As such, she hadn’t bothered to tell them when the princess invited her for a walk in the forest this afternoon, though now she almost wished she had. “Posy,” said Luna, “I must apologise for my discourtesy.” “Oh no, Highness, not at all!” “Verily, I have not treated thee as well as I might have, given the lateness of the hour and thy tiredness after the day’s events.” She swivelled to look at Posy. “Thy leg. Be the injury as bad as I did suspect?” “Nay, Highness, as I did tell thee when thou didst carry me home, ‘twas but a scratch from the beast.” Luna snorted. “But a scratch? Posy, ‘twas a manticore did bite thee!” Posy hung her head as if this had been through some fault of hers, not a chance encounter with the ravenous beast on their outing. She was still amazed that Princess Luna would fight off such a monster to defend her – and not only that, but also carry her back to the castle when she realised that Posy was bleeding. “I applied a poultice of my mother’s recipe to the wound,” Posy explained, showing the princess her bandaged leg. “The herbs contained within will aid healing and render me fit to work again within seven days – though I wager I will be ready within three.” “Thy mother,” Princess Luna said pensively. “Be it truth, Posy, that thy mother be a hedgewitch?” Posy grimaced. She hated the word used by those who didn’t understand what ponies like her mother could do. It was a long held tenet in Equestria that only unicorns could do magic, and since most of them lived in provinces to the south, anypony in the north, west or east of Equestria was considered an oddity. Moreover, earth ponies who could do wonderful things with plants and precious stones that seemed like magic were distrusted and had been given the name ‘hedgewitch’ to mark them out as different. Rumours flew thick and fast about hedgewitches – ponies who travelled in wagons, never putting down roots anyplace. Some said it was because they did mischief wherever they went and moved on before they could be caught and punished. Some said they stopped to steal foals from cribs to teach their hedgewitch ways, or bewitched local stallions to give them foals of their own so they could continue the hedgewitch tradition in a new generation. Having grown up in a travelling wagon, Posy knew firsthoof that most of all rumours about hedgewitches were nonsense. However, after working in the castle, she also knew that other ponies didn’t like letting go of their prejudices and treated her differently once they learned of her heritage. Luna saw Posy’s expression change and immediately apologised. “I have offended thee. That was not my intent.” “N-Nay, Highness!” Posy stuttered. “I was merely … lost in memory for a moment.” “Ah, yes, memories.” Luna looked up at the stars. “They are apt to tempt us into distraction, are they not? From time to time even I find myself examining the past with a sad eye. Methinks … perhaps my sister and I should not have put ourselves atop Equestria as rulers. Methinks perhaps we should have left this land to govern itself. The three pony races would, in due course, have come to agreements all could abide by, without interference from we two.” “But Princess,” Posy exclaimed, “thy reign has been prosperous, has it not? Peace stretches across the land, the ponies of Equestria are united more than before thy arrival, and our fields flourish under the care of thy sun and moon.” “My moon only,” Luna said bitterly. “It is Celestia’s sun that grows the crops and makes ponies dance in delight.” “But thy moon doth give them slumber and peaceful dreams,” Posy pointed out. “Dreams of her. Dreams of sunshine and fat living, while my beautiful night doth go unnoticed above their slumbering heads.” Luna dropped her gaze from the sky and Posy was shocked to see tears glistening in her eyes. The idea that a princess could be so sad as to cry seemed wrong, like seeing a tree uprooting itself, or fish throwing themselves into the claws of fishing griffins. It was almost … unnatural. “Please, Highness … do not cry,” Posy whispered, drawing as close as she dared. “Am I not abroad this night? Thy night appears beauteous to my eyes.” She looked up, picking out the brightest star she could see and focussing on it so she wouldn’t have to look at the weeping princess. “To think that thy magic did place each star … such a thought be too much for a lowly pony such as I to comprehend, yet I may still admire thy work. Methinks King Sanguine hath never done such a thing to the sky above his own lands. I hear tell that night in Gryphona be a starless, empty time, and that the moon thy magicians raise each night be a sickly thing compared with thine.” When Luna did not respond, Posy broke her stare and glanced across, wondering whether she had said something wrong. “Highness?” “Thy words hath comforted me marvellous much, Posy,” said Princess Luna, her stare unrelenting and a little intimidating. Posy was struck by the same feeling that had come when the princess first came upon her next to her half-ploughed field. “Verily, thy mother did raise a noble foal, whate’er groundless rumours did speak of her skills in that endeavour.” “My mother was everything to me,” Posy replied softly. “Was?” “My presence in the castle was prompted by her death. I had no stomach for travelling without her. What skills I had learned from her proved advantageous to work in the grounds herein, else I might have been turned away. My skills of bed-making, cooking and maid-service are not polished enough for nobility, but I can make things grow and keep plants healthy when they ail.” “Thy knowledge of herbalism be akin to hers?” Princess Luna asked. “I know enough,” Posy admitted. “I am no healer born, but I know enough. I know which herbs may hurt and which may heal, and I can distinguish betwixt mushrooms that are good to eat and those that make the world all colour and noise until a stomach brings them up again.” “Excellent!” the princess declared, startling Posy from her reverie. Memories of her mother carrying an apron full of mushrooms back to their little painted wagon dispersed from her mind like morning mist. “H-Highness?” “Didst I not say thou hath comforted me marvellous much?” Luna stepped towards her, smiling that smile with slightly too many teeth. She tipped her head to one side, as if assessing Posy against some unknown criteria. “Wherefore dost thou retreat from me now?” Posy, realising she had started to back away, froze in place. “M-My apologises, Highness –” “’Twould please me more for thee to call me Luna. I am done with title such as ‘Highness’ and ‘Majesty’ from thy lips.” Luna crossed the last few steps between them, standing over Posy in a manner than made her tremble without really understanding why. “Thy lips be made for much better things than to call me titles.” With that, Luna pushed her face into Posy’s and claimed her mouth in a bruising kiss. Posy’s eyes widened but she didn’t pull away. Such an insult was untenable. Yet she was innocent of the ways of kissing and didn’t know how she was supposed to respond. Luna moved her mouth, but she wasn’t sure whether she should do likewise. Should she tilt her head in the opposite direction to the princess’s? She recalled her roommates’ late night conversations about stallions who had caught their eye. They had talked of tongues and moaning to show interest when being kissed. Was there a difference between kissing and merely being kissed? After a few moments the princess pulled away and Posy cursed herself for just standing there like a fool instead of doing something. “Thy virtue be ascertained,” Luna said huskily. “Thou hath never known the touch of another in this way?” “N-Never, Highn- uh, Luna.” The princess nodded in approval that Posy had corrected herself. “Then it shall be my pleasure to teach thee, little Posy.” She stepped forward again, but before initiating another kiss said, “Soften thy mouth and tilt thy head to thy left. Do as I do.” “Y-Yes, uh, Luna.” This time the kiss was far nicer. Posy discovered that mimicking the princess’s movements made a strange sensation prickle in her belly, of all places. When Luna finally broke the kiss they were both breathless and Posy’s whole body sang in a way it never had before. “Good girl,” Luna purred.