//------------------------------// // Fifth Year (17) // Story: Bloodlines // by SleepIsforTheWeak //------------------------------// He is seventeen and it’s really starting to hit her how old he is getting. She watches him from the doorway of his bedroom as he trots around his room, gathering the things he takes to school with him. He doesn't see her, too preoccupied with his work and lightly singing along to the music blasting from his record player. "A fifth year already, can you believe it?" Pinkie mutters to her, having materialized soundlessly beside her in the doorway. It kind of makes her proud that she doesn't get freaked out by that anymore. "Yeah," she drawls out. "And legal in a year." "Oh, don't even say that. I don't want to think about it." Pinkie says without missing a beat. "Seems like we were picking out his name last week, huh?" "You know, it really does. I always thought my father was exaggerating when he said things like that, but seventeen years are gone and I don't even know where they went." "I can hear you two, you know." his voice, a lot like Pinkie's, cuts through the dark tones of the music easily. He makes no indication that he spoke to them, continuing to neatly put things in his saddlebags and not even looking at them. They go quiet, not sure how to respond, before he trots over and tugs them both into a gentle, long hug. "I know what you mean." he says slowly after a while of holding them. "I remember when I was five years old, and mom took me to Rockerfellow for the first time to see Grandpa. I remember when I was eight, and Stormee was flying already and I got really jealous because I didn't fly until I was, like, six. And now look at me." He speaks in a bittersweet, reflective tone and it amazes her how mature he is. A lot more than she was when she was his age. Slowly, he lets them go, and then gently wipes Pinkie's tears away and smiles at her. She grins right back at him, and it strikes Dash for maybe the first time how much he looks like Pinkie. Sure, his coat and mane are her own, but the face is all Pinkie's. The eyes and the smile and her cute little nose and round cheeks and wider forehead. He turns to Dash. "I'm going to be late if I don't leave soon, and I still have to say goodbye to everypony." She nods and lets him through his doorway and into the tiny landing outside his room. His room is in the attic, something he found fitting, since he was kind of king of the hill. Together, they follow him as he makes rounds, stopping at all of his siblings' rooms. It is five in the morning, so he has to patiently wake all of them up to say his goodbye. Sue pouts in a very childish way when he wakes her up and tells her he has to go, but she excepts it and hugs him tightly, after which she kisses his cheek. He blushes and rolls his eyes, but doesn't pull away from his affectionate sister, because he knows it does him no good. Diane opens one bleary eye, annoyed at being woken up, but hugs her brother loosely. She is asleep again before they leave the room. Skylar is already up, sitting in his room and reading a book by candle light. He gives his mothers an innocent smile when they eye him strictly and inquire if he stayed up all night reading. He hugs his brother and they speak in hushed tones for a long while before Lightning musses his mane and gets up, pointedly pulling the book out of his younger brother’s hoofs and telling him to blow out the candle. Stormee is really hard to wake up, but once she does, she clings to him. He nips at her ear and she nips back at his playfully and they both laugh identical laughs, before hugging one more time. Finally, they go downstairs, where Pinkie stuffs his saddlebags with a couple of apples for breakfast, and out of the house. Dash stands by while Pinkie hugs him tightly for a long time and he mutters reassurances in her ear. Finally, she lets go of him with a sniff, and covers his face with kisses, which he tolerates. He turns to Dash after Pinkie steps back. For a while Dash just looks at him, admiring his face as if this was the last time she would ever see him. His mane is way more untidy than hers ever had been, and it's growing really long in the front. He needs to get it cut, and she tells him that, which only earns her a playful eye roll. She gathers him in her embrace and relishes in his warmth, closing her eyes and breathing him in. After a while she lets go and nuzzles him, which he returns twofold. He steps away from them, turns around, and leaps into the sky. He flies a good fifty feet away from them before facing them again and waving. They wave back and watch him take off into the sky, which is only just beginning to be painted with the orange glory of the coming sun. He is seventeen and two months after he leaves home he gets a letter from Diane out of the blue. He finds this very surprising since out of all of his siblings, he is the least close to Di, but that surprise is lost and replaced with a sickening, cold panic as soon as he reads the contents of the letter. The trip from the school to his house takes a good hour and a half, but he is at his front door by an hour. The ponies of the town give him questioning looks when he flies through, since everypony and their great-grandmothers knew him and knew he was suppose to be in school. He quietly walks into the side door, to no avail, because their side door opens into the kitchen and it's afternoon and in the afternoon everypony does their homework in the kitchen. "Lightning?" Stormee's voice cracks with surprise, and immediately four pairs of different colored eyes snap to him. "Lightning! What the buck are you doing here?!" Skylar hisses at him urgently, glancing to the doorway that leads from the kitchen and into the living room. "I told you to not do anything stupid, damn it, do you never listen?" Diane whisper-snaps at him. "You told him? D!" Sue looks disapprovingly at her sister. "Yeah, I told him!" Diane snaps back, forgetting to whisper. "Because we all knew that he needed to know, and since the rest of you didn't have to guts to send him a damn letter, I did it myself." He never realized how much his siblings cursed. He didn't even know his siblings knew any curse words, and the big brother in him really doesn't like that they do. But an even bigger part of him is extremely worried about is mother and just wants to see her already, so he opens his mouth to dispel the argument his kin have gotten into. He doesn't get to speak, because at that moment his mother enters the kitchen. She looks tired. No, she looks exhausted. She looks exhausted and scared and very stressed. In all of his memories of his mother, he had never, never seen her this bad. Not even when Grandpa died, and that's saying something because she was a mess back then. "What's going on? I heard–" her eyes meet his from across the room and she closes her mouth with a snap. She looks surprised for a second before her face twists into a livid scowl. "–shouting." For a few tense moments they stand there, looking at each other. "What are you doing here, Lightning Tempest?" he can tell she is mad because she never uses his middle name. Ever. He is more than a little intimidated, but he is even more angry, so he ignores it and focuses on that. "Why did you not tell me about mom getting sick?" he demands. "Because I knew you would do something like this. Who told you, anyway?" she passes her eyes over his siblings, who all shrink under her gaze. "That's not important," he answers, and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Diane relax a bit. "What's important is that you didn't tell me that my mother was sick, and you made everypony lie to me!" he is shouting, he knows, because he sees his siblings wince at the loud volume. "Lower your voice." she snaps at him, which only serves to make him angrier. He propels himself forward until he is only inches from her face. "You had no right–" His face is thrown to the side and he hears a slapping sound, but it doesn’t immediately register that his mother slapped him because his mother had never, never laid a hoof on him. He wasn’t even spanked as a foal. None of them were, not even Stormee, who really could have used some and still does. His cheek is burning, but there’s amazing clarity in his brain. He still feels angry, but it is momentarily replaced by a bigger swell of shock. His mouth hangs open and he looks blankly back at his mother. "You do not tell me what I have the right to do or not do in my own house." she growls out. "Now, get out–" His eyes widen in alarm. She was kicking him out? "–go cool off. Go fly. Don't come back until you can hold a civil conversation, you understand me?" He nods slowly, relief washing over him. "Yes ma'am." As soon as the door closes behind him there is a hollow, empty silence in the kitchen. Dash is acutely aware of all of her foals staring at her in shock, not believing what she had just done. She's not quite sure she believes it herself. She hit her son. She hit her son. She's a monster. How could she. . . why did she. . .? "Don't you all have homework to be doing?" she hears herself croak. None of them move for a long time, but slowly yet surely they all trudge back to their seating areas around the kitchen. Sue at the table, the twins on the floor, and Stormee on top of the fridge. Dash had yet to understand why her youngest daughter liked to do her homework on top of the fridge. Once only the turning of pages could be heard she turns around and numbly walks out of the room and into the living room, through which she takes a right to the hall and into her and Pinkie's bedroom. Their bedroom is by far one of the biggest rooms of the house. The other bedrooms are rather tiny compared to it, even Lightning's. The bed is pushed to the north wall, and is an impressive specimen in itself. Dash feels her mouth twitch with a reminiscent smile, remembering a time when all seven of them would be crowded in that bed, weathering together the loud storms outside or crowding around her as she read from Daring Do as a part of their bed time story time. That bed hadn't held all seven of them in a long, long time. She walks slowly to the bed, a bit hesitant to behold the sight that awaits her. "What's going on? I heard loud voices." Pinkie croaks from her place on the bed. Dash nods, not looking at her. "Yes. Our lovely eldest son has returned from school." she informs her wife, forcing the words through thick guilt. She wonders if she should tell Pinkie what she did. Pinkie's sweaty brow furrows. "He's back? But. . ." she closes her mouth, seemingly not sure what she was going to say in the first place. "Yes. I doubt he's going to go back, either. You know how he is." At this, Pinkie smiles. An exhausted, small smile. "Yes. Every bit as loyal as you, and caring as me." She winces in pain and the tiny smile falls off her face. Dash stares at her for a long moment. "I. . . I. . ." She closes her eyes, not able to bring herself to say it. Pinkie drops her brow in confusion, no doubt about to ask her about her hesitance, but a knock on the door interrupts her. "Come in." Pinkie doesn't take her eyes off her, not until the door opens, admitting him. His cheek is already swelling and bruising slightly, and she bites her lip, wondering how Pinkie is going to take the news after all. He enters slowly, with a small, nervous smile on his face. Dash looks away from him and focuses on her wife, who grins largely at their firstborn. "Lightning. Come here." Pinkie croaks at him, and seconds later Dash feels him beside her. She focuses on Pinkie harder, and wonders if it is a healthy or good thing that she can't even look her son in the eyes and apologize. "What happened to your face?" Pinkie touches the bruise lightly, eyes full of concern. "I hit him." There. She said it. She owned up to it. She's a monster. Pinkie's eyes flash to her, but there is none of the anger or shame that Dash expects in them. "To be fair, I. . . kind of deserved it." Lightning jumps in, and finally Dash looks at him. He smiles at her; a tiny, apologetic smile. She presses her lips together in a thin line. Pinkie hums in something like agreement. "We all need to get slapped from time to time. But, what are you doing here Lightning? You're supposed to be in school." He rubs his neck, looking away at a large framed painting of the seven of them that they had done about a year ago. "I. . . uh, I was worried about you, Momma." His voice hitches. "And, um, Di sent me a letter. . ." he turns back to look at them, tears pouring down his face. "A-and I just. . ." he gestures feebly. "I came to help. I'll do anything. Everything, everything you need to get better. I'll take care of everypony, fix dinner, wake everypony up in the morning to get them to school. Make sure they do their homework. Everything." He inhales shakily. "I know. . . I know I'm probably going to get kicked out of school for this, but, I don't care. I need you better. I'll finish school at Ponyville if I have to. Just, please don't send me back. I can't stand to be out of the loop and helpless." Dash thinks he has more to say, but he doesn't get to do so, because Pinkie throws her forelegs around him in a tight embrace, shushing him quietly as he cries into her shoulder. She stands off to the side for a second, just looking at the two, before motherly instincts kick in and she joins her wife, draping her wing on him. He pulls away once his tears subside into sniffles and rolls his eyes. "Celestia, I'm such a wimp."