Cozy, Cheerilee and I continued to have a chat as a family. Everything was alright for the most part. However, Cozy brought up something that made me a bit concerned.
“...Pale? I’ve been having these weird dreams lately.”
My level of anxiety went through the roof. “What kind of dreams, kid? I hope it’s nothing dangerous…”
She rubbed the back of her head. “Well...it’s hard to explain. But I feel like I saw myself watching things come crashing down around me. It’s somewhat of a blur, but I remember being all alone and...gah. It’s not coming back to me.”
“I see...well when you have more details, you can always come to Cheerilee or myself about it. Right, Cheery?”
“Absolutely,” she replied with a smile, “I expect either of you to come to me if there’s ever a problem. And I intend to do the same. That’s exactly why I’ve come to love you, Pale.”
A blush tinged my cheeks because I didn’t really know how to respond to that. “Um...for real?”
She nodded and continued. “I’m serious. You’re courageous, strong, yet a caring and kind stallion when it matters. You may be a bit er...brutish at times, but that’s what I like about you. Flaws and all.”
Cozy took a moment to process what Cheerilee had stated. “Wait a minute...you still love him despite some of the things he’s done? Oh--n-no offense, pops!” she looked at me with a nervous, pained visage.
“Don’t be sorry, kid. It’s true. We all have flaws and that’s kind of what makes us special. Some aspects of ourselves that can’t just be changed to altered overnight. Some things take time to work through. Look at me,” I pointed at myself, “I’m a bit callous and can make poor decisions if I don’t think things through. But even so, I still do my best to put my personal desires aside when on the job. That’s not to say it’s been completely perfect though...far from it.” I hung my head down. “I’ve done things that are often questionable even by my own standards, kid.”
“...so what do you do?” she asked, “What do you do when you realize that you’ve made a mistake that you would normally condemn somepony else for?”
I raised my head up. “I accept whatever comes my way, and make sure I never repeat the same mistake. Only by learning from the missteps we make can we actually improve. It’s as they say: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
“Wow…” Cozy flapped her wings and sighed, “I wish I had known that before I got mixed up with a bunch of supervillains.”
Cheerilee came back in. “We have already deduced that that wasn’t your fault, dear. You were a child. Unable to form complex, nuanced thoughts and opinions beyond what you were spoonfed about the outside world. Ultimately, Pale, myself, his friends, and everyone eventually came to the conclusion that your life was--dare I say it--completely unfair and that you deserved a second chance once we knew you were mentally ready.”
The pink pegasus sniffled, and wiped away a tear from her eye. “...Thank you both. So much.”
Knock-knock-knock.
My ear flicked. Now who could that be? Did Cheerilee expect someone else?
I looked at the door, then at her. “Um, Cheery? Are you--?”
She got up with a shrug of her shoulders. “Not at all. I wasn’t expecting anyone else today. I wonder who it could be…” She opened the door, and gave a greeting. “Hello?”
To my utter shock, it was Spectacle. The brownish unicorn mare had returned with eyes filled with tears. “Are you...Ms. Cheerilee? The one who is currently engaged to Pale Vestige?”
Cheerilee hesitated, and replied with a slow nod. “I...am. Why?”
The mare dropped to her knees with an earnest sob. “Please...please forgive me. I never wanted to bring harm to your husband or your relationship! I foolishly made the mistake of joining up with a monster that I thought would grant me what I want. But in the end, I just made everything worse not only for myself, but for everypony else…”
Cheerilee’s eye twitched. It was almost as if she had the urge to haul off on this mare, but she withheld it. The amount of restraint she displayed was powerful enough to leave several cracks within the floorboards.
“I...I understand. You were doing what you thought was best for your family. But in the future, please keep in mind that nopony in this world is going to look out for them other than yourself,” she explained in a calm tone.
Spectacle’s whimpers slowed to a stop as she stood up. “I won’t ever make that mistake again. I promise. I-I’ll do anything to make it up to you all. He didn’t deserve what happened to him, and I want to atone for what I have done.”
An eerie silence filled the air.
Cozy leaned over and whispered to me. “Um...pops. Is mom okay?”
From the dining room table, we could witness an almost...dark and demonic sort of glint in Cheerilee’s eyes. This was absolutely not good. Tranquil fury was among some of the scariest types of anger due to how much we feared the unknown. Part of me wanted to interject and pull Cheerilee back down to earth, but I sure as shit wasn’t about to--at least not yet.
“...Hang on, kiddo. Let’s allow this to play out for now. You never know what someone like Cheery is planning.”
At last, she replied to the unicorn’s inquiry. “Anything, you say?”