//------------------------------// // 17 – School Blues // Story: Acts of Love // by Krickis //------------------------------// Act III The Bonds of Family ⠀ Chapter Seventeen School Blues ⠀ ⠀ “And you remembered your lunch box?” “Yes, Mom,” Morning said in an annoyed tone. Even if she was annoyed as she said it, hearing Morning call her mom made Twilight’s heart flutter. It had been three months since Morning had started calling her mom, and the spell hadn’t worn off yet. She smiled at her daughter as they approached the schoolhouse. “I just want to make sure you’re going to be okay.” “I’ll be fine,” Morning insisted. “I’ve been to school before.” “But not since you’ve come to Ponyville!” Twilight said. She put a hoof on Morning’s shoulder. “This is my first time…” Morning sighed and gave Twilight a hug. “It’ll be okay, Mom.” Twilight hugged her back. “You’re right.” The hug went on a little longer than Morning was okay with, apparently, because she pulled away and said, “Ponies are staring…” Twilight yielded, letting go and opening the door to the school building. There were a lot of foals inside, as well as a few other parents. “Morning! Over here!” Twilight and Morning looked towards the voice to see Pumpkin Cake frantically waving to them. Pound Cake was sitting beside her, smiling and waving with less enthusiasm than his sister. “Can I go see my friends?” Morning asked as she waved back. “In a minute,” Twilight said. “First let’s go say hi to Miss Cheerilee.” The teacher was talking to another parent when they walked up, so they patiently waited their turn. It didn’t take long; Cheerilee noticed Twilight waiting and waved her over. “Don’t be a stranger! It’s nice to see you two again.” “Hello, Miss Cheerilee,” Twilight said. “Uhm, hi,” Morning said more quietly. “Hi, Twilight. Hello, Morning.” Cheerilee smiled at Morning in particular. “Excited to start school here in Ponyville?” “Uhm, I guess…” Morning glanced back at her friends. “Can I go see my friends now?” “Why don’t you go find a seat near them?” Cheerilee said. “I’ll make sure your mom is going to be okay without you.” Morning didn’t waste any time in running off to sit with the Cakes. Twilight was glad she was excited to be with her friends, but she did wish they had a chance to say goodbye before she ran off. Cheerilee turned to Twilight with a knowing smile. “It gets easier.” All three of Morning’s moms had taken their daughter to the open house before the school year, where Morning and Cheerilee had met for the first time. In that one short meeting, Cheerilee seemed to have picked up that Twilight was the one taking Morning going to school the hardest. “I hope so… I know she’ll be in good hooves, and she has friends here already, I just…” Twilight sighed. “I don’t know. I can’t help but worry.” “It’s normal to be worried,” Cheerilee said. “But you’ll see when you come to pick her up today, she’ll have stories of having fun with her friends.” “Yeah, you’re right.” A nearby stallion chuckled. “I remember my first time.” He extended his hoof to bump Twilight’s. “I’m Stiff Neck, and my daughter Gusty is a student here. It was hard at first, but she made some good friends and we learned how good Cheerilee is as a teacher, and before you know it I wasn’t worried about her being at school anymore.” He pointed to a mint-green pegasus filly, who was too busy chatting with two other fillies to notice them. They all seemed happy to be back in class together, and they were around Morning’s age. “Maybe Morning and her friends can become friends with them too,” Twilight said. Stiff Neck laughed. “Well, she is the Princess of Friendship’s daughter. I’m sure they’ll get along great.” Twilight forced a chuckle, but she wasn’t so sure. Morning had already come a long way in learning about friendship thanks to the Cakes, but she still had bouts of anger issues and she was shy around new ponies. ‘No, they look like nice fillies,’ Twilight reminded herself. ‘And Morning is getting better about behaving herself. Nothing bad is going to happen!’ “So how long did it take before you got used to leaving Gusty alone at school?” Twilight was eager to get used to it, she’d been up all night worrying. “Eh, give it a few weeks.” Stiff shrugged. “Of course it was a little easier for us. Gusty has a cousin the same age as her, and they started school together.” Twilight nodded. “Morning has a few friends here already. It’s nice to know that she won’t be surrounded by strangers.” “It’s good for them to have someone who will help look out for them. Well, I guess I’ll go say goodbye to Gusty and head out.” Stiff Neck winked at Twilight. “This is the best part, ‘cause you get to embarrass them in front of their friends.” Twilight grinned. She didn’t actually want to embarrass Morning at all, but she had to admit that she was sympathetic to the point of view. “I’ll keep that in mind. It was nice meeting you!” “You too, Princess.” Stiff Neck bowed his head, then walked off to see his daughter. “He seems nice,” Twilight said to Cheerilee. “Oh yes, he is. Gusty’s a good kid, too.” Cheerilee smiled. “I know you’re nervous, but everything will be fine. You’ve visited the school before, so you know the foals are happy here.” “I know, I know.” Twilight sighed. “I don’t even know what I’m so nervous about.” Cheerilee put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s something a lot of parents feel. And you three just became parents not that long ago, so I’m sure it feels like things are moving very fast right now.” Twilight smiled. “It does. But… this is good. Morning will get to spend some time with ponies her own age, make some new friends, and I know she’s got a great teacher.” Cheerilee chuckled. “Well, I can’t disagree there! Maybe you’d feel better if you went and said hi to her friends.” Twilight was pretty sure she understood what Cheerille really wanted – it was time for Twilight to say goodbye to Morning. “Alright. I’ll see you later, Cheerilee.” She left the teacher to greet another parent and made her way over to Morning instead. It seemed that Pumpkin was excitedly telling her about the school and what she could expect. “But the best thing is recess! We can play together outside then!” “Hey, kids,” Twilight said as she walked up to them. “Getting Morning acquainted with school?” “Yes, Mrs. Twilight,” Pound Cake said. “It’s Princess Twilight!” Pumpkin said. “But Mom and Dad said to call our friends’ parents Mr and Mrs…” Twilight giggled. “It’s fine, you two can call me whatever you want.” She turned to Morning. “It’s time for me to go. I’ll be back to pick you up this afternoon, though.” Morning nodded. “Okay. Bye, Mom.” Twilight wanted to ask for a hug goodbye, but she didn’t want to embarrass her daughter in front of her friends. “Bye, sweetie. Have a good day!” “I will.” Twilight had to pry herself away from Morning. One hoofstep at a time, she moved herself out of the schoolhouse. Once she was alone, she let out a sigh. She looked back towards the schoolhouse, then started to wander home with her head hung low. It wasn’t like Twilight had never been away from her daughter. She’d gone on a business trip a month prior, but at least then she knew that Morning was at home with Sunset and Fluttershy. At least then she wasn’t in a classroom full of kids she didn’t know. All alone, when Twilight knew very well kids could be cruel… “Hey, you’re the foal whose own parents didn’t want her!” they’d say. “No!” Morning would insist. “My moms did want me, that’s why they adopted me!” But the kids would just laugh at her. “No, your real parents! I bet you don’t even know who they are, do you?” Then Morning would come back home with all these thoughts bouncing around her head, and she’d decide, “I don’t want to live in Ponyville! I want to find my real parents and live with them!” And what could they do? They’d have no choice but to help find her birth parents, even though that could only go poorly. And then she’d go back to ponies who probably didn’t deserve her, and they’d never get to see her again, and… And Twilight needed to get her act together. She picked her head up and started walking home, reminding herself that Morning wouldn’t want to leave them to go back to her birth parents. Probably. Almost definitely, even! Although… was it normal that Morning had never asked about them? The orphanage had said she was surrendered as a baby by a mare who had refused to give them any information about herself or the father. Even if Morning wanted to know about them, no one had the answers. But Twilight had the resources to find them, or at least to put forth a strong attempt at it. Would Morning want that? Part of Twilight felt like she should talk to her daughter about that, but… but a much bigger part of her never wanted to broach that topic. Maybe it was okay for Morning to never talk about her birth parents. Maybe it was even for the best. If it never came up, then they could just be a happy family! Or, wait, was that just Twilight’s fears talking? Maybe she should ask her wives about it. “So,” Twilight would ask them, “do you think we should try to find Morning’s real family?” “What?” Sunset would ask. “Why the heck would we do that?” “Well, I was just thinking she might want to know…” “Twilight,” Fluttershy would say with a frown. “Morning is our daughter, nopony else’s. It doesn’t matter who her birth parents are.” “Yeah, I know, but –” Sunset would cut her off with a sigh. “Twi, it’s been five months since we started this whole thing. Why don’t you love her like we do yet?” “What!?” Twilight would be taken aback that Sunset would even ask her that. “I didn’t say that!” “You, uhm, you don’t have to,” Fluttershy would say. “We can tell. But, uhm, you could at least keep pretending to be a good pony instead of trying to get rid of her.” “I wasn’t trying to get rid of her!” Twilight would insist, now brought to tears. “I do love her! I really do, I don’t want her to go at all!” Fluttershy and Sunset would look at each other and frown at her. “Not like we do,” they’d say. “You’ll never love her like we do.” On second thought, maybe Twilight wouldn’t bring it up with them. She tried to keep her thoughts more in check as she walked through Ponyville, to mixed results. She managed to keep them from running away quite to that extent, but she was still a mass of anxiety as she walked the peaceful town’s roads. So much so that she didn’t notice when a couple of stallions walked up to her until one of them tapped her on the shoulder. “Aaah!” The stallion recoiled. “Oh, sorry! Didn’t mean to sneak up on you!” Twilight quickly adopted a smile. “Oh, it’s no problem! I guess I was just lost in thought.” The two stallions looked at each other for a moment and grinned. There was a blue one, who had been the one to speak before, and a green one. The blue one laughed awkwardly and said, “Oh, I know the feeling.” “So, er, what can I do for you?” The blue stallion blushed and looked down at his hooves so the green one spoke. “It’s a little embarrassing to admit. The thing is, well, when you and Princess Fluttershy first came out, you inspired me to do the same thing. I asked out my crush, and well, now he’s my husband, and now…” “Now here we are,” the blue stallion finished for him. “We’re travelling, you see, and we were hoping we might run into you while we were in Ponyville.” Twilight smiled warmly. That was just what she needed to get her mind off of things. “I’m so happy we were able to inspire you two. And congratulations on getting married!” “Oh, congratulations to you too, Princess,” the green stallion said. “We were happy to hear about your marriage to Princess Sunset. We’ve followed you three in the news for some time, you know, and it’s meant so much to us to watch you break down those barriers.” Twilight hadn’t exactly been trying to break down barriers with her love life, but she supposed she could see why ponies would view them that way. “I’m just happy to be able to spend my life with the ponies I love.” “So modest too,” the green stallion said. “We always joke around about what traditions you three will shatter next.” “Well, Princess Morning, of course,” the blue stallion said. “Adopting a foal into a polyamorous marriage is a pretty clear sign that nothing will stand in the way of love ever again.” Twilight forced a small laugh, although she wasn’t really happy with Morning being talked about as if she was some political pawn. “To tell you the truth, we don’t really think of it that way. We just decided we were ready to adopt a foal, so that’s what we did.” “You really are an inspiration.” The green stallion sighed contently. “Well, thank you for your support.” Twilight glanced away. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m… uh, needed back at the castle.” “Oh, of course.” The blue stallion nodded. “We’re just delighted that we were able to meet you. Thank you so much for your time.” “Of course, the pleasure’s all mine.” Twilight inched away. “But, er, duty calls and all that.” “Bye, Princess!” The green stallion waved her off. “So nice to meet you!” Twilight waved awkwardly, then turned and walked away quickly. It wasn’t like she didn’t know some ponies saw her whole life as some political statement, but she always thought those ponies were on the other side, so to speak. She never expected it from progressive ponies who thought they were supporting her. Was that how ponies saw her? Is that what they thought this adoption was about? Just some barrier that she decided to take down, what, just because she could? And worst of all, what would that mean for Morning if somepony said something like that to her? There was no telling if the pony who would say that to a child would even be as jovial as those two stallions had been, either. “So what’s it like to be part of a political scheme to undermine whatever we’re pretending to be worried about this week?” they’d ask her. Of course, Morning wouldn’t understand that at all. “What do you mean?” “Your moms don’t care about you, they only adopted you to prove a point!” Being young and impressionable, she would come home brainwashed. “None of you care about me! I need to be in a real family with one mom and a dad!” They’d try to explain to her that family didn’t have to be like that, but she wouldn’t listen. In the end, they wouldn’t be able to cope with the fact that their daughter would hate them, so they’d have to help her find a new family. Twilight sighed as she reached the castle. It had been an exhausting walk back from the school. She pulled the door open with her magic and went inside. The sound of hoofsteps greeted her, and she was met in the entryway by Night Light. “Welcome back. How’d it go?” “Hi, Dad.” Twilight put on a smile, but she didn’t put much effort into it. “It was fine. Pound and Pumpkin were there, and Morning was excited to spend time with her friends.” “Yeah, I knew Morning would be fine.” He gave her a knowing smile. “What I’m wondering is how you’re doing.” “I’ve… been better.” “I thought so. Come on into the kitchen, your mother and I figured you’d need a pick-me-up so I made cocoa.” Twilight smiled and followed him. Her mom was already waiting for them at the kitchen table. Twilight Velvet took one look at her daughter and gave a comforting smile. “That bad, huh?” “Is it that obvious?” “A little, yeah.” Velvet pulled out a chair for her. “Here, take a seat and tell me about it.” Twilight did as her mom asked, sitting down while her dad got them each a mug of cocoa. It was already the perfect temperature, he must have made it when they left in the morning and then set the pot to keep warm while Twilight made the round trip. Once everyone was served, Night Light took a seat beside his wife. “So, first day of school blues. Always tricky, especially the first time.” “Were you nervous when I first went to school?” “Oh, sure,” Velvet said. “Maybe a little less than you are because Shining had already been going to school by the time you started, though you brought your own set of concerns with you.” Night Light chuckled. “At least we knew Shining was good with foals his own age.” It was a little strange to think of her parents being worried about her when she first started school. She’d never thought about what it was like for them back when she was in school. “How did I do in school, anyway? I mean, I remember it, but mostly the lessons and my teachers.” “Hmm, well, you made a few friends,” Velvet said. “Sort of.” “Wonder how those other girls are doing these days,” Night Light said. “They’re fine, we write letters now,” Twilight told them. “Ah good.” Night Light sipped on his cocoa. “Anyway, that was always our biggest concern. You may not remember it, but you were a bit bossy as a filly. Other foals didn’t like to play with you much.” “I’m worried about Morning.” Twilight cast her eyes down. “You know how she is. She still has anger issues, and not every foal is going to be as understanding as the Cake twins.” “Are they in her class?” Night Light asked. “Yeah, so at least she has a few friends.” Twilight smiled and took a drink of her cocoa. At least there was that. Cheerilee taught a few age levels, with Morning being one of her younger students and the Cake twins being some of her older students. “Well, they’ll look out for her,” Night Light said. “I don’t think Morning is going to become the most popular girl in school, but that’s okay. She’s got a few good friends, and they’re good foals. She’ll be alright.” “I hope so…” Twilight sighed and bowed her head. “But what if… what if something they can’t handle happens?” “Something like what?” Velvet asked. “I don’t know, maybe… what if it was a mistake to send her to a public school? She’s a celebrity, what if paparazzi swarm them at recess?” “Hey, come here and answer a few questions for us,” they’d say. “Trust us, your parents do this all the time! Just tell us about –” “Then their teacher will step in,” Night Light said before Twilight’s imagination could run off with her again. “Is that what you’re so afraid of?” Velvet asked. “That somehow being your daughter is going to backfire on her?” “I don’t know…” Twilight shook her head. “Yes. Yes, that’s what I’m afraid of. And… and I’m afraid if it does, she won’t want to be our daughter anymore.” “Oh, honey.” Velvet placed a hoof on hers and smiled sadly. “Morning loves you three. She’s happy here, she isn’t going to want to leave no matter what.” “Yeah, but!” Twilight realized she was on the verge of an anxiety attack, so she took a few deep breaths. “But I can’t get it out of my head.” Velvet gently stroked Twilight’s hoof. “She loves you.” “She’s never… she hasn’t brought up her birth parents.” Twilight looked up at her parents. “Is that normal?” They looked to each other for a moment, then they both smiled. “I think normal is a difficult word,” Velvet said. “I think it would be normal for her to ask, but I also think it’s normal for her to not think about it much.” “Did Spike ask about his parents?” Twilight asked. “Not exactly,” Night Light said. “Spike asked why he was different from us, though. That was when we explained what happened. So he always knew we didn’t know about his birth parents.” “But speaking of Spike,” Velvet said, “you know how happy he is, and you know he’s never once complained about being adopted.” “Well, there was that time he wanted to get in touch with his dragon heritage,” Twilight pointed out. Her parents hadn’t been there for that, but they’d heard about it. “And he learned who his real family is,” Night Light pointed out. “And didn’t you say that your bond with him was even stronger than before?” Twilight nodded slowly. “Yeah, it did feel that way.” Velvet chuckled. “Plus I don’t think Morning has a ‘dragon heritage’ she’ll ever need to connect to.” “Yeah, I know.” Twilight took another deep breath. “And… and Morning will be the same way. She knows she’s loved, and she’s happy with us.” The door to the kitchen opened. They all turned to see Fluttershy walk in, some mail under her wing. “I thought I heard voices in here. Your magazine came in, Mom.” “Oh, good.” Velvet smiled as Fluttershy handed her a large writer’s digest, which she set aside. “There’s supposed to be an interview with a good friend of mine in this one, I look forward to reading it.” “Anything else good?” Twilight asked as Fluttershy stopped to give her a kiss before taking a seat at the table. “You got a letter,” Fluttershy said, handing it Twilight. “Would you like some cocoa?” Night Light asked. Fluttershy smiled. “That’d be lovely, thank you, Dad.” Twilight used her magic to open the letter, and a picture fell out. She looked at the picture first, which showed a pregnant mare and two stallions. Twilight quickly read the letter and smiled. “It’s from one of the stallions in the photograph,” Twilight said. “I’m not actually sure which one is him, but the mare is his wife and the other stallion is her coltfriend. It says that they’ve wanted a foal for a long time, but they were afraid they couldn’t do it as part of a poly relationship. Apparently we encouraged them to go through with it.” “Aww, how nice,” Fluttershy said. It was a good reminder that even if it wasn’t their intention, their actions were having a positive effect for other ponies like them. “I ran into two stallions on the way here. They were married, and said we inspired them to start dating years ago when you and I first came out, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy leaned on Twilight. She took a sip of her cocoa, setting it down next to another letter. “That must have been nice, too.” “It was at first. But then they started talking about us like we weren’t really ponies anymore. Like we were just this… this political machine, adopting a daughter just to challenge conventions or something.” “Oh…” Fluttershy wrapped a wing around Twilight. “Well, that isn’t very nice at all…” “No, it wasn’t.” “I take it that was something else on your mind today?” Night Light asked. “Yeah, it was.” Twilight leaned her head against Fluttershy. “I don’t want ponies to think we’re doing this for any reason other than because we love Morning, no matter if they support us or not.” Velvet levitated the photograph to get a better look. “I don’t think these ponies feel that way. I think they might even know how you feel a little.” “Yeah, true.” Twilight smiled. “I’ll have to write them a letter.” “We can write it together,” Fluttershy said. Twilight nodded towards the other letter, the one by Fluttershy’s cocoa. “What’s that one?” “Oh.” Fluttershy frowned. “That one’s, uhm…” “Uh oh.” Twilight frowned. “One of those, huh?” Fluttershy shook her head. “No, it’s not somepony being mean to us. It’s… from Cloudsdale.” “Cloudsdale?” Twilight was tempted to levitate it over to take a look, but she figured Fluttershy must have set it aside for a reason and she didn’t want to pry. “Some sort of school reunion?” “No, nothing like that,” Fluttershy said, although truthfully Twilight had known that wouldn’t be it. She would’ve just told them if it was something like that. “It’s… about Stormy Skies.” Twilight’s jaw clenched. “Oh. What about him?” “He died.” Twilight blinked, her jaw going from clenched to slack. “He died!?” “Yeah, over the weekend.” Fluttershy spoke oddly calmly. Not casually, there was definitely something in her voice, but it was even and didn’t hint at exactly what it was that she was feeling. “It says I’ve inherited all of his things.” “Does it say what happened?” Twilight asked. “Some sort of pills and alcohol.” Fluttershy shook her head. “I never knew he was doing anything other than drinking.” “Are you okay?” Velvet asked. Fluttershy put on a very convincing smile. “I’m fine, Mom. I… well, you know I cut ties with him years ago.” “So… what do you want to do?” Twilight asked. “I can take care of all the official stuff for you, but do you want to do anything?” “Thank you, Twily.” Fluttershy nuzzled against her. “He might have had some of my mom’s stuff. I’d like to get that. I don’t care about the rest of it.” “Of course,” Twilight kissed Fluttershy’s head. “Do you want me to go pick it up?” “We can go together,” Fluttershy said. “I’m fine, really. And we’ll go tomorrow, I don’t want to miss Morning coming home from her first day of school.” It wan’t that Twilight thought Fluttershy’s answer was the wrong one or anything, but she wasn’t sure it was healthy for Fluttershy to not feel anything over this. Then again, if anyone had a reason to be numb to it… “We’ll go when Morning is at school. Do you want me to talk to her about this?” Fluttershy sighed. “I guess we should tell her. It’s not like she was ever going to meet him, but she should know he’s dead.” “I’ll talk to her about it,” Twilight said gently. “Not today,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t want her to remember that alongside her first day of school in Ponyville.” “Right.” Twilight nodded. “You know,” Night Light said, “we’re here if you want to talk about anything.” “Thank you, Dad.” Fluttershy smiled. “But really, I’m fine. A little shocked, but I’m okay. You two are more my parents than he ever was.” Night Light patted Fluttershy on the shoulder. “And we’re proud to have you as a daughter.” Fluttershy smiled warmly at him, then turned to Twilight. “Okay, how did Morning’s first day start? I want to hear everything.” Twilight smiled. “Well, there isn’t a lot to tell, but…” She told her about dropping off Morning, about meeting another parent, about seeing Cheerilee, about Morning being the one to comfort her before dropping her off. Everything, just like she wanted. Everything except the insecurities on the way home. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t tell her wives about her worries, just that this wasn’t the time. Fluttershy needed Twilight right now. She wasn’t torn up over losing someone she hated, but she was in a weird place, and she needed a little positivity from her family. And maybe that was all Twilight needed too. Just something to get through the day until Morning came home and they saw that things were even better than before. That’s what their family was all about, after all. They grew little by little, and they were always better than before. Soon Twilight’s parents were telling stories about when Twilight was in school, which Twilight laughed through along with the others. Twilight felt better, and she was pretty sure Fluttershy did too. Before she even knew it, all those insecurities had slipped away.