=== BABW: A New Conflict ===
=== Chapter 22: Aftermath ===
[ July 13, 2081 -- Safe Haven ]
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It had been three days since the incident south of Nouvelle Baton Rouge, heading on the way to the site where New Orleans once stood. Three days since Blue Vague had fallen to the temptation of destruction provided by the fragment of darkness that had slipped into his mind, and was rescued from himself before he could do any significant damage to the world or his own soul.
Despite the fact he was now firmly clear of the danger posed by the Nightmare Parasite, he still could not shake the feelings that lingered around in his mind – like traces of oil lingering in a bay after a tanker had its hull gashed, but it was already moved, and ostensibly cleaned up.
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“Why do I feel like I’m still trying to drag that millstone around my neck? I thought the Elements of Harmony would have gotten rid of that feeling…” Vague complained aloud, as he laid out on the ground at the edge of the plunge-pool in his soul-scape.
“You know what Princess Luna told you immediately afterward: ‘The Elements of Harmony can only purge the evil from your soul. Not the negative emotions that served as the bait for that evil.’ I believe she also mentioned as an aside that there might have been a few Ponies she could call on if she needed more fine-grain emotional counseling, but it didn’t seem bad enough now to warrant it,” Torra-Borous replied to his master, as the navy and blue snake attached to his ‘person’ looked on with quite a non-plussed look on her face.
“I’m still going to get you back for tying me to Turtle-Boy like this, Vague…” Venome grumbled; the venom of a seductress gone, and replaced with a churlishness similar to dyspeptic ten-year old girl.
“I’m sure you will…” Torra-Borous replied to his temporary partner, keeping his deadpan and even tone of voice.
“Not only is there the millstone of why I still feel so worked up and angry. But then there is the fact every second we’re all stuck here, those masked people and their miscreant followers entrench their control on the major nations ever so much deeper,” Vague grumbled; now sounding like Venome’s twin ten-year old brother as he did. “There is no telling what kind of insane and stupid orders and backdoors and whatever else the SPH is making Aguillar and the few senior Secretaries install in order to make sure they rule in perpetuity.”
It was at that point that Venome had quite enough of her own depression and Vague’s constant moping ever since the Elements purged Ooze’s evil power from the both of them. “Ok, that’s it, timeout. I’m really just… straight up done with feeling so sorry for ourselves.”
The turtle-head of Torra-Borous turned around, and Blue Vague himself stood and looked up as Venome continued speaking.
“All of this, all of this we’ve been doing the last three days. Even if it doesn’t lead to a relapse or whatever, it’s still no good, no good at all.”
“Well what are we supposed to do?” Vague asked as he sat down on his haunches.
“We go home!” Venome replied; her churlishness replaced with sudden home inspiration.
“I thought Dr. Jun told us she blew it up, or blew part of it up anyway,” Vague responded.
“NO! The other one!” Venome replied, her expression going flat suddenly.
“I dunno, just leaving for Equestria really would make this feel like surrender. I… I can’t warm up to the idea of leaving and going underground for however many months, or even years, before emerging to do whatever,” Vague responded, the tension and nervousness evident in his voice.
“While your concern for leaving Earth is valid, master, I am afraid I have to agree with my ‘snake-head’ regarding this issue,” Torra-Borous started, startling both Vague and Venome. “To leave Earth now would be leaving Earth with no organization to resist the SPH’s hold on power. At the same time, this situation is too critical to over-extend ourselves trying to wrest control back from their hands without sufficient martial and political power. The Princesses were clearly quite serious when they said they were going back to the drawing board for this entire venture. And the ten of us do not have the wherewithal to affect a cogent, organized resistance to the Black Shield either.”
“Yeah, but…” Vague started before he was cut-off by his partial Id.
“’But…’ nothing, Vague. You can’t be a one-pony solution to this whole situation. I mean even Celestia, who you would think could be a one-Pony, or I guess, one-Alicorn solution to this issue, deliberately is not attempting to be that. She can see more than anyone that trying to solve this by one’s self is only going to lead to a nervous breakdown, at best.”
“I… I guess…” Blue Vague responded dejectedly, as he began to realize that waiting was in all likelihood the best play the H.E.A. had at the moment.
“And besides. Isn’t there a certain mare that’s worried sick about you that you need to be attending to?” the navy and blue snake said, with quite a bit of wryness in her voice.
Vague blushed as he turned to the side, realizing where Venome was going with this line of thought. He thought of how touchy-feely that Hana had been with him the last few days, and how one thing could lead to another and…
“I really don’t think that now is the time for that, Venome, as much as you’d probably like that…” Vague replied nervously, as he felt that level of physical intimacy with his marefriend being beyond his capacity to do anything but fantasize about at the moment.
“My, someone has feeling quite the something for that green mare, aren’t they? But no, I don’t mean that, at least not yet; more along the lines of a nice dinner somewhere that’s not too fancy, but at the same time, is spaced to give a sense of, coziness. However, if you wait too long, she’s is going to start thinking that she is the one doing something wrong regarding your relationship not going ‘next level’. And you know how she can get when she starts having her little depression spirals. At the very least you need to talk through all of this stuff,” Venome replied, nodding sagely as she did.
“How is it that something born of my corrupted Id is so erudite and thoughtful?” Vague replied; chuckling as he began to get the frog out of his throat that leapt in anytime the thought of being physical with Midori Hana came up.
“Look at whose Id I was derived from. I don’t think you could help not being long-winded if you tried,” Venome responded in a snide tone, flipping her white hair from one side of her head to the other as she did.
“No, I don’t think he could either,” Torra-Borous agreed, as both of them began to chuckle as well.
“Fine, fine, I’ll let that slide since you are my creations, active and passive…” Vague replied as he rolled his eyes.
“But seriously, I know you want to eventually start a family with Hana, Vague. And you know the most direct route to doing that. Plus I know all the other things you want to do with her beyond that. So eventually you are going to have to get over this anxiety you get when you talk about the physical part of your relationship,” Venome chided, as she looked on with some mild bit of concern at her progenitor.
“I know, trust me I know. I just don’t want to push the issue and make it seem like I have a one-track mind like Storm…” Vague responded somewhat defensively.
“It’s hard to be as single-minded as Storm. At the same time though, you know he cares for Blaze very much, and thinks of her far beyond being his exclusive sexual partner, correct?” Torra-Borous asked of the blue Unicorn.
“Yeah, that much is clear. I just want to find my way, though; doubt Storm’s game plan is the same one I want to run for myself,” Vague said as he stood up again, gaining confidence in the idea of initiating this phase of his and Hana’s relationship.
“We trust you in that. In any case, I bet your friends are coming to check on you, so I guess you should join the world of the wakeful again,” Venome mused, as she could feel through her link to Vague that Storm, Blaze, and Hana were approaching Vague’s room.
“Yeah, I think we’re about done here. Talk to you all later then,” Vague said as he dissipated in a ‘wave’ of blue particles of light.
“So how you long do you give Vague and Hana before they go all the way as they would say?” Torra-Borous asked of the navy snake integrated into his turtle-like body.
“Hard to say, can’t think it’d be more than another year. Passion is a hard thing to gauge, and no telling what’d set them off,” Venome responded.
“True, though I think Blaze might know how passion can work the best of all four of them,” Torra remarked, as they began to leave the soul-scape as well.
“Probably, I’d need to talk to her myself,” Venome responded as they de-manifested completely.
The only thing that was left was a large black raven that had kept itself undetected from all the others there; the edges of her feathers tipped in indigo and blue, and her eyes azure and piercing.
“It appears the three of them are building a true bond and rapport with each other, this is good. However, she should probably intercede anyway. There are still issues within his psyche that may prove to be problematic if he doesn’t confront and resolve them.”
--- === ---
Blue Vague was roused by the slight rapping of hooves against the sliding door to his room. As his eyes focused on his surroundings, he inwardly groused a moment as he was still only 2/3rds his original size, the aftereffects of being purged by the Elements of Harmony still not entirely resolved.
I will be so glad when this week is over with…
“Who is it?” Vague asked, responding to the knocking at his door.
“It’s us Ao-chan!” he heard from a familiar perky, most likely grass-green-coated mare on the other side of his door.
“Fine, come in…” Vague replied, hoping he had steeled himself properly for was in all likelihood his marefriend about to tackle-hug him yet again.
The door slid open, and while he was indeed steeled for how hard his marefriend grabbed him, he was stunned by just how fast she had done it this time.
“You know, I always thought the phrase ‘deceptive speed’ was a bit of a backhanded compliment, but Hana can be fast when she really wants to be,” Red Blaze said, trying to stifle a giggle as Hana had planted herself on her coltfriend’s bed, with said (diminutive) coltfriend wrapped in her front legs, along her chest and lap.
“You know you don’t have to look like that every time she manages to grab you like that, right?” Golden Storm added with a bit of a mocking tone, noting how Vague was desperately trying to maintain face despite being considerably smaller (still) than his marefriend and virtually totally restrained by her – and not seeming to mind in the slightest.
“I’m still wondering how she can do that and I not see it coming…” Vague said; starting to blush beet red as said green mare rocked slightly from side to side with him, humming a soft tune. Despite the tone of discontent he spoke with, he indeed did not seem to mind the slightest in reality.
“I’ll only have a few more days while you’re still like this, so I wanna take as much advantage of it as I can,” Hana mused in a contented tone; like a talking kitten with her favorite plush in her ‘paws’.
“You know you’d probably do the same thing with her if the roles were reversed…” Blaze chided softly, still trying to stifle that giggle of hers.
“Hrmph,” was all Vague responded with, wondering how odd it’d look with a chibi-Hana tight in his front legs.
“Anyway, as adorable as this scene is with you two, we do have an actual reason for coming down here to see ya Mr. Vague,” Storm started as he and his marefriend composed themselves.
“So why are you all here, Mr. Storm?” Vague responded in kind.
Red Blaze answered for her coltfriend. “We’ve been talking with the Bearers, and we were all considering leaving for Equestria to decompress totally. We’ve been doing nothing but piling up stress while we have been here since the Unsealing, and now that we officially cannot do anything in any capacity on the outside, it’s going to do nothing but eat at us even more. I say we take our leave for now and focus on what we can control. They want to leave some time in the next week, and the three of us are inclined to agree with them.”
Vague sighed as he felt the stress already starting to build in his psyche. “You know exactly how I feel about that, though. At the same time, what good is it going to do us here, sitting around not doing anything until the Princesses feel comfortable with making their presence known to the wider world again?”
“I feel the same way, Vague,” Storm added, as he scratched behind his ear and beat his wings, trying to alleviate some of his own anxiety. “I don’t want to give the S.P.H. free reign over the world. But what are the ten of us supposed to do about it at the moment? I might have some military experience, but that was flying a plane that mostly flew itself; I haven’t done any kind of training in conducting guerilla operations, which is probably what we’d have to do if we want to at least re-establish the national capitals.”
“And what of everyone’s families - all of the volunteers and all of the diplomats and government officials that decided to side with us?” Hana started, as he held Vague a little tighter. “I can’t imagine what they’d do to them if we were to try something and fail. Especially if we tried to get Aguillar out of Washington and/or take back control of Washington with her still there. I can’t violate the trust and faith her family and Vice-President Oberwiess put in us all to get her back, unless we were sure as possible that what we were going to do was going to work.”
Red Blaze looked on with some manner of concern as she looked on at the pair on the bed. “That’s not our, in terms of the H.E.A. as a whole, only problem. I would put good money on criminal elements either jumping on the S.P.H. bandwagon, or just using the internecine conflict their rule will inevitably cause, in order to enrich themselves. Protection rackets, theft of arms and high-end computers, the whole nine yards as they would say in the Anglo countries. We should be fully prepared to not only root out the S.P.H. when the time comes, but to assist the police and military in dealing with other non-state and black-market actors as well.”
Vague sighed as he sunk into his marefriend a bit more, letting all the words wash over him. “I see. I don’t have an argument against what any of you have said. In fact, I’m now convinced that down time to attend to our own personal needs is exactly what the ten of us need. I guess we have to trust that the rest of humanity will hold on in this interregnum.”
“We’ll, they’ve been hanging on as long as they have now, and were hanging right along with them. Now we’re in a position to potentially stand them up fully, but we need to properly assess the situation and prepare for it,” Blaze concluded as she made for the door to Vague’s room to exit.
“And at the same time, even when we do get our new plan of action, we’re gonna have to make sure we take all the time we can for ourselves. We’re not machines nor are we golems, and ignoring our needs will not serve us well, and that can eventually blow up in all of our faces if it’s bad enough,” Storm added as he followed his marefriend out.
Hana made to leave as well, before Vague spoke up, getting her attention rather quickly.
“Hey Verte, don’t go yet, there is something I want to ask you while I got you by yourself.”
“What is it Ao-chan,” Hana responded, as her coltfriend continued to lay along her chest and belly.
“I was thinking, when we get back to Equestria and get settled… that… that we go out to dinner,” the blue diminutive stallion asked of the green mare.
“Really? Um… I…” Hana stammered, suddenly a bit frog-of-throat much like Vague when she would ask him about their relationship.
“I think I’ve been leaving this relationship in a holding pattern for way too long. I mean, Storm and Blaze still make time for each other. And not just for the obvious, well the somewhat obvious… anyway… they take the time to really be there as a couple. And… I want us to start the same thing… in our own way of course. I mean I can’t be Storm and you can’t be Blaze, so…” Vague started, his thoughts drifting in and out due to anxiety.
“I… I think I get it… and I accept. Though I dunno where we can have a nice dinner to ourselves like that,” Hana replied, hugging Vague as she did.
“I bet Rarity or Pinkie Pie know a place or three, we’ll ask them when we all get settled down again,” Vague replied.
Hana squealed in delight, giving her coltfriend one last hug before she made to leave the room for the time being. But before she exited entirely, she mentioned one last thing to Vague.
“You know, while you’re still here, you should talk to your dad. I’m pretty sure the whole… incident three days ago would give you two plenty to hash out. And trust me, it’d be better to do it now while it is fresh before the brain starts leaving out important details.”
Yeah, I really should… Vague thought as he lay back out on his bed to contemplate the last conversation, as the green mare slid his door back closed.
[ June 11, 2081 – Safe Haven ]
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“This sucks…” Rainbow Dash said as she sat in the media room; herself, Applejack, and Blue Vague all looking at one of the monitors tuned to ABC Sports simulcast.
“Yeah, I was wondering how long it was gonna take for this…” Vague added, sighing as he did.
“Can’t overturn the apple cart without the fruit rollin’ round everywhere. No tellin’ what those Black Shield chuckleheads gonna mess up next,” Applejack continued, as she just shook her head at what appeared to be rather obvious fallout from the recent imbroglio that had engulfed the entire world now.
“Have we confirmed the veracity of this statement from the Major League Baseball Players’ Association? We have?! Oh alright, let’s run with it then…” the three of them heard of a producer from what was apparently behind the main camera, as the anchors looked on with a bit of confusion. After a few moments, the two anchors apparently settled down and began to resume their reporting.
“Well let’s see what this apparent statement is from the MLBPA. I kinda have a hint at what is about to be announced given the past events, but maybe someone convinced them otherwise,” Vague mused aloud before the anchors started speaking.
“Yes, this is Randall Foster for ABC-Disney Sports, we’re broadcasting live on the main branch of ESPN Networks, and we deeply apologize for any interruption of live events. If you wish to watch said live events and catch up on our reporting at a later time, we have continued those broadcasts on the second branch of networks, starting with ABC Sports International for the evening slate of our domestic fans of European Summer Soccer. Going back to our main story of the late morning, we have now confirmed this official communiqué from the Major League Baseball Players’ Association. We will post the full statement with all context on our website as we proceed with this report, but here is, in our own and our producer’s estimation, the most relevant passage.”
“Due to the recent events with the organization known as the Society for the Preservation of Humanity and the recent collapse of the official governments of the major nations of the world, we feel that the safety of our players cannot be guaranteed. This combined with the personal beliefs of the great majority of our members, with regard to the political turmoil that now grips North America, have lead us to this decision. We are officially requesting that all members of our organization voluntarily refuse to participate in any further games or official league activity until the League and Ownership can assure the safety and well-being of all of our constituent members. We understand that fans of the sport will be disappointed and, in all likelihood, angry at this decision, but we also ask that they understand our perspective and support us, and the players that we represent, as we find our way through this chaotic time.”
“It makes sense, none of the teams have been able to field even half-full rosters for the last week,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, her face showing the upset and disappointment that the statement predicted.
“Can’t really ask anyone to go to work with those idiots running around like they are,” Applejack added.
“Not to mention that roughly 80% of the current player base for the Major Leagues are Outsiders, and quite a number of them advocated for President Aguillar’s election and re-election. To see her government deposed like it was has done nothing but shock and anger them,” Blue Vague concluded as the anchors began to speculate on what this official strike would mean for the league going forward.
“Add to that the League Ownership itself is in all likelihood split,” Vague’s father added, as he was walking through the area the three Ponies were watching the screen in.
“Hey dad… uh…” Vague said, nervous seeing his father like this after what had happened four days previous.
“Hello…” Andrew responded, equally nervous, not wanting to do anything to upset Andre or either of his new friends.
The two kinda looked at each other awkwardly, neither quite sure of what to say to the other.
“Why don’t we go back to the section I was at, I think there are some things we need to talk about before you move on back to Equestria for the time being,” Andrew said, finally working up the nerve to break the silence.
“So you heard about our plans?” Rainbow Dash asked of the middle-aged dark-skinned man.
“Yeah, and frankly I don’t blame any of you wanting to get away, at least for awhile. Lord knows that if I were in the same situation I would want at least a month to completely decompress,” Andrew replied, as he and Vague made for the other room his father had occupied.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be okay. Dad’s good people and… well I want to go ahead and deal with this before it festers and my emotions get out of control… again,” Vague stated as he began to steel his nerve.
“Well… don’t let either of us stop ya. We’re all here if ya need another few set of ears to listen, right RD?” Applejack responded.
“Sure, we’re all still here, and we’re gonna be here for ya regardless,” Rainbow Dash added.
---
“Those are good mares you’ve befriended, along with the green one that I’m assuming is that Kyoko you’ve been talking to these last couple of years,” Andrew mused as the two of them sat in on the couch at another wide-screen monitor, a movie from the early 2040s playing at low volume in front of them.
“Yeah, the two of us really hit it off when I stayed with her parents for a while. And then we… both decided to convert, and here we are…” Vague started, still nervous as he felt like a kid again, and not in a good way.
“Uhh… oh this is that movie that you said you saw with Mom way back when you met her, huh?” Vague started, as he looked at the sights of old New Orleans from the movie.
“Yeah, A Sinful Storm, one of the last big films done in New Orleans before it was dis-incorporated,” Andrew replied, letting the memories of him meeting his future wife in an old theatre wash over him.
“If I remember correctly, she always said that she liked the movie because it showed that even in a sea of debauchery, a strong person can hold true to their ideals and their faith,” Vague said, starting to let the memories of his mom talking to him about life playback in his own mind.
“And I always liked it because it showed New Orleans in all of its grit and glory before its slow demise finally took hold,” Andrew added as he paused the film, not wanting to divide his attention away from his son.
“I don’t know how I let myself forget that…” Vague said, as he began to choke up, the emotions starting to get the better of him already.
“We all do from time to time, no one is ever able to completely shield themselves from the tribulation of the world. We just have to surround ourselves with people who will reel us back in when we find ourselves adrift,” Andrew mused, as he comforted his Ponified son.
“But… what I turned into… even if it was just for that short amount of time. All I could feel was pain, hate, distress. It felt like the entire maelstrom of the world was trying to funnel itself through me, and I couldn’t resist its pull!” Vague started before Andrew rapped his son on the head lightly, right where the edge of his mane-line met the base of his horn.
“What have I told you about doing that to yourself? I swear, son, you can be your own worst enemy at times,” Andrew said in a chiding tone, before chuckling a little bit.
His son rubbed behind his horn a bit where his father rapped him, as he began to calm down. “I… I know – it’s my worst habit.”
“At the same time. Wearing the uniform of those some of yours, well, I guess some of mine now too, call the Black Shield, couldn’t have helped matters any,” Andrew said, knowing he was not blameless for the blowing-up of Vague’s psyche during that day.
“I guess we both have some explaining to do about then, don’t we?” Vague mused, as he could feel the tension building, but accepted that it needed to happen eventually.
“Yes, yes we do…” Andrew said as he let the moment settle down, feeling that Vague was going to speak first.
“I… guess I just… I just kept running away…” Vague said, as he began to steel his nerve again, hopeful that his father would understand where his emotions had been the last year and a half.
“From what?” Andrew responded, interested to hear what exactly Vague felt like was haunting him.
“Mom. It seemed like everything I did, everywhere I turned, I couldn’t help but hear her, see her. The only time I felt like I was truly my own person was when I was with Kyoko, Ethan, and Natasha,” Vague replied, as he looked off into the paused movie screen.
“So what about Linda were you trying to get away from?” Andrew asked, leading Vague to continue his venting, sensing he needed another stage of emotional catharsis.
“I dunno, it felt like I was trying to get away from everything that she is: scary, dogmatic, stubborn, prone to outbursts…” Vague said.
“All of that is true. Your mother has her feelings and her beliefs, and it not shy to tell others what they should and shouldn’t be doing. But you know where I am going with this…” Andrew started.
“Yeah, before I met those three, I was the same way. Even though my beliefs didn’t point in the same direction, I still acted the same way. I tried to press everyone I met into believing what I did about the Domes and the wealthy who resided in and dominated them. I was angry that the world seemed to be coming apart and apparently no one cared or was cheering flames as they reached higher and higher. I was stubborn when I simply refused for the last couple of years to have direct contact with mom, always having to use you as my go-between.”
Vague sighed, as his attention shifted.
“But when I met Kyoko, and eventually Ethan and Natasha… all of those feelings faded. I felt like I was my own man, instead of just a man walking in the shadow of his mother. It didn’t matter what I believed, what kind of anger I felt in that moment, if I was interacting with them, it all just went away. But then… after Princess Celestia and the other appeared… it felt like I could never get away from that... despair you could call it now. I was torn up between this simultaneous need to get away from the mom’s shadow, and the hurt I felt when I was separated from you two because of decisions we all made mutually.”
“I know it was hard for you to live with Pops even though he didn’t have many years left. I thank his soul every day that I can that he held on long enough to see you into your post-secondary education where I couldn’t, at least not personally,” Andrew stated morosely, yet with reverence for his passed father.
“I do too… I felt his presence when I did finally convert. Even though I wasn’t seeking his approval, at least not consciously, it felt so nice to know that he understood how I felt and why I did what I did,” Vague added.
“You didn’t need anyone’s approval; you are an adult and you have your own interests to look after. At the same time, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t momentarily shocked to see my own son now walking on fours instead of twos,” Andrew replied, as the focus of the conversation shifted to his end of the spectrum.
“I… I didn’t want Mom to know. I know how dogmatic she can be, and given what she was e-mailing me in those days, telling her I had become a Pony would have sent her into an apoplectic fit. As much as I have disdain for her… I didn’t feel like I could do that to her. Fat lot of good that sentiment did for me in the end, though,” Vague said, as his head drooped.
“What has passed is the past, but I don’t want that to be a weight on your neck. In the end, she is her own woman, just as you are your own man… stallion… sorry. In any case, at some point, neither of us can live in fear of her reactions…” Andrew said… as he began to come to some realizations about himself.
“Us? I thought we were still talking about my path to this point…” Vague said, a tad confused.
“I meant what I said about us not living in fear of her reactions. Ever since you and the two of us became separated, I was desperate not to lose her as well. I’m sure you’ve felt some animosity toward me about my… well let’s face it… fecklessness when she began to try and assert her will on both of us. In the end, I found myself being drug along in her wake.”
Andrew sighed, as he leaned forward on the short couch the man and the diminutive stallion sat on.
“When she got that position as a deaconess for that preacher in the Atlanta Domes, I tried my best to argue that we were finally carving out our own little life in Nouvelle Baton Rouge, why should we throw all of that up in the air to chase whatever this was? Needless to say, I lost the argument. Every so often, generally when you sent us one of your e-mails about how your life had changed in one way or another, I would argue that the two of us needed to reconcile with you. She wouldn’t have any of it. As far as she was concerned, you were just a prodigal son, and she merely needed to wait you out until you saw the error of your ways and came back to us.”
“But as the years drug on and I never set foot in Atlanta, much less the domes, I would wager she stopped believing I would just show up at your doorstep,” Vague wondered aloud.
“And you’d be right. Suddenly this faith that you would just come back to us with no effort on our part to reconcile turned into anger at you rejecting us. Eventually, this anger turned into apathy for whatever it was you were doing with your life. Every time you would send us a letter about how you were doing there in NBR post your graduation, she would just act as if nothing of note really happened. And every time I pressed her to get some kind of solid reaction, she’d just deflect and say how good of a life we were building for ourselves in Atlanta and how we just needed to forget about you. Selfish and scared as I was, I would just go along with that.”
“I see…” Vague said, as his anger toward his mother was now starting to morph into some mixture of concern and confusion.
“Just as your feelings came to a head when Princess Celestia appeared, so did our relationship begin to turn. When she saw that white winged-Unicorn on the television, I felt something in her change. I know how much you hate this terminology, and I don’t particularly care for it in a literal sense either, but I really do believe your mother thought she was looking at the Anti-Christ.”
“The Book does say it would come ostensibly bringing peace, but speaking nothing but deceit to bring the world into chaos and ruin,” Vague said, himself having contemplated the idea in some of his more dark moments.
“While the idea on the surface would make some small bit of sense, you could really apply that to any political figure that speaks of a worldwide peace and comity, trying to bring some kind of order out of chaos. Especially these days when it does feel like any little thing would spark the End of Days in a real sense, instead of the metaphorical,” Andrew continued, remembering the arguments he would have with Linda about Princess Celestia and if her message of peace was actually true.
“It didn’t help that when that darkness inside of me fully manifested, I was speaking in terms like I was trying to bring about the End of Days. I guess I’m even more of my mother’s son than I thought,” Vague said and he laid out on his back on the couch.
“Well I was blasted unconscious at the time, but the other Princess, Luna I believe her name was, told me as much as she thought I was willing to accept of my own son and what he did and didn’t do during your battle,” Andrew said.
“Certainly not a shining moment for myself. I am just glad I was rescued from my madness before I could really try and break the world,” Vague said, thankful for the Ponies he called his friends, both old and new.
“And that is all you can ask for ultimately, that when you can’t see that you are lost, you have people around you that can guide you back to shore,” Andrew concluded, getting a chuckle out of Vague.
“I guess we both need a lighthouse in this fog of life, huh?” Vague said, his mind coming back to some sense of ease.
“We all do in a way. The person you are guiding one day may be the one guiding you the next, and vice versa…” Andrew replied, before trailing off.
“I wish we had someone that could have guided all three of us when we were still together, then all of this may have been avoided,” Vague said, as they both began to think of one Linda Bowman
---
“Ah wish Ah still had this chance,” Applejack said, as the turned down the feed to ESPN 1 and left herself and Rainbow Dash to contemplate things.
“To talk to your dad? Yeah, I can imagine,” Rainbow Dash responded.
“Ah can still remember that day. It was a horrible wild rainstorm; the police chief came to the farmhouse, and told Granny Smith what had happened. We didn’t understand at first why she was crying so loudly, but it didn’t take long. I think most of the adults in town were involved in the funeral in some way,” Applejack said, her usual country charm replaced with a dreary melancholy.
“Hey I’m sorry if I’m making you drag up bad memories. I’ll just drop it if ya want me to…” Rainbow Dash said, suddenly feeling nervous for having brought up the subject of parents.
“Don’t be sorry, and don’t feel pity for me either. You understandin’ me is enough,” Applejack said, some of the pall of depression lifting from her voice as she came back to the present.
“Sure, no prob. Makes me want to go visit my dad in the flesh now…” Rainbow Dash said.
“You do that, and give him a big enough hug for all ten of us too…” Applejack concluded with a faint but still noticeable smile
---
“We always pay for the choices we make, even when we don’t realize we’re making them,” Andrew said, as he took a photo out of his wallet, of himself, Linda, and Andre about 20 years previous.
“The disturbing thing is… I couldn’t tell you what exactly went so wrong to have us here. I think if we did it all over again, perhaps we’d talk more about it, but I think we make the same decisions over,” Vague thought, marveling at how much he had grown and changed since then, in so many respects.
“Hard to say, son. All I know is… if Linda were here with us, I’d tell her that we all needed to come clean about how we feel about each other, and then work our hardest to put our family back together in earnest,” Andrew thought aloud, which inspired Vague.
“You know what dad, you’re right. This farce of our separation has gone on long enough. I don’t know where she is now, but I’m going to do everything within my power to find her. And if we can’t put our family back together, then I will make sure at the very least we all know how we all feel about each other, so we can start moving on with all of our lives, instead of just staying tethered to the past like we are now.”
“You’re right son, neither of us can live in fear of upsetting her. And perhaps, this fear fed into her paranoia and it was why the way she was the last couple of years,” Andrew added, as he unpaused the movie, and the both of them settled in to watch the rest.
[ July 17, ????+1 – Ponyville, Equestria ]
==========================================
“I was wondering when you were going to come to me with a question like this~” Rarity sung in her charming mid-Atlantic accent, as she flitted a bit around Blue Vague, who was standing in the lobby to the sales area of her combination storefront, workshop, and abode.
“Yeah, I mean I put you all through a lot with my own issues, and I put Hana through it double-time. I just want to do something nice for her to let her know I want to recommit myself to making our relationship work,” Blue Vague said, as he paced around Rarity, who was using him as a temporary, impromptu coat ‘rack’ as they were now in the ‘workshop’ area of Carousel Boutique.
“Well, what kind of place of dining are you looking for, dear?” Rarity said, her magic working two different sewing machines while she gave a twice-over to a recent rough sketch for a new design.
“Somewhere that is not overly fancy, but not too low-rent. Where you can be intimate, but not isolated either,” Blue Vague said as he shifted one of the covered pieces from his telekinetic grip to Rarity’s.
“Hrm, somewhere middle-class… and with decent spacing to not let others overhear any personal conversations, at least not without straining enough for you to notice…” Rarity thought aloud, as she went through her mental rolodex of restaurants and eateries in town.
A few moments of relative silence was broken when Rarity came up with her answer. “I got it, White River’s Cosmo-Diner. I participated in my fair share of displays at the diner and it’s just perfect – reasonably priced but the food there is just delicious!”
“Hrm, I might have passed by there once or twice before, do you need to reserve in advance or can we just walk in when we're ready?” Blue Vague asked, thinking about the sign on the outside that looked like a canoe piercing through white-water rapids.
“You will if you want to eat at a certain table or booth on the weekend. Though the traffic should be light enough for most weekdays for you to walk-in,” Rarity said, as she powered-down the sewing machines and put the incomplete pieces back onto labeled mannequins and racks.
---
“Oh wow, this place does look like it was decorated by someone who grew up canoeing rivers as a kid,” Midori Hana mused to herself and Vague as the two of them walked into the lobby of the Cosmo-Diner.
“Clearly the ‘Cosmo’ stands for ‘cosmopolitan’, though I wonder in what way…” Blue Vague asked aloud as they saw a bluish-gray and white-maned Earth Pony stallion approach them.
“Hello and welcome to White River’s Cosmo-Diner!” said stallion exclaimed, surprising the couple.
“Thanks, it… it really looks…” Vague started, still startled by how loud the Pony in front of them greeted them.
“Woodsy?” Hana concluded, not sure what to say herself.
“Really? Thanks, that’s exactly what I was going for. I wanted the main section of the diner to look like a nice picnic in a evergreen forest, surrounded by the untamed, well mostly untamed, wilds and everything,” the bluish-gray Earth Pony mused as the now trio continued into the restaurant proper.
After a few moments of taking in the scents of the air-fresheners and the cooking food, Vague and Hana were indeed reminded of a picnic in the woods; or at least as reasonably close as the two of them could gauge from the various media they’ve consumed.
“Hrm, you there, miss. You remind me of a certain incident not too long ago in the wilds of the Neighponese Mountains,” White River said, as he slid to the other side of Hana, opposite Vague.
“The greatest of the mountains and volcanoes, Amaterasu. Named for the original term the founding tribes of Neighpon called Celestia. The four great rivers of the main island can trace their origin to the slopes of that mountain, and it was my intent to canoe each and every one of them,” White River said, as the trio walked slowly past the few other patrons there, to the booth that Rarity had called ahead to reserve for the two of them.
“So what happened?” Hana asked, which got White River to slide in front of the two of them now.
“So I was at the first stream, tracing it down to when it was large enough to support the weight of my canoe. It was the middle of March, so the snow cap was still far down the mountain. And there is a certain creature that lurks the snow, just looking for those like me,” White River said, pantomiming as he did.
While Hana kept eye contact with River, as she was paying close attention to the story, Vague just looked on non-plussed, as he got the distinct feeling of an ulterior motive from the male Earth Pony.
“I still remember how I met her. She looked like she was wandering the snow drifts through the still dormant trees, her white coat blending in perfectly, yet that jet black mane of hers standing in such stark contrast,” River continued, as the other two Ponies settled in to their booth for the evening.
“So of course being the gentlepony that I am, I simply had to render what assistance I could to the poor, most likely freezing young mare,” River said, as Hana nodded briefly, and Vague still looked unimpressed.
“To my surprise, she rebuffed all of my attempts to assist her. She was so very cold, a shame I thought of course. Perhaps she was running away from an abusive coltfriend or father. So of course when she began to walk further up the slopes, I followed her,” River continued, as Hana seemed like she was hanging on his every word, and Vague sighed briefly, trying to figure out what the ultimate point was.
“So when I was probably a kilolength from the edge of the snowcap, she suddenly stopped, and turned around, and looked me dead in the eye with that look. It was such a captivating visage. Those black mane and eyes, the hair flowing in the wind and drifting snow. I was so captivated by that raw, natural beauty; I didn’t notice she was approaching me.”
White River concluded his story with a heavy sigh.
“I did notice, though, when she laid her front legs around me in an embrace. While I called her ‘cold as ice’ as a metaphor for how cold-hearted she was behaving when I first met her, she was quite literally like living ice, or should I say living snow. I apparently had caught the eye of a yuki-nu’uma, or ‘snow-mare’. It felt like my blood was starting to run cold, like a half-frozen river in winter,” White River said, as it was clear that he was coming up to climax of the story.
“I barely managed to break her grip around my shoulders, and despite the near-zero temperatures, I could feel my body starting to warm up. She was stunned long enough by me being strong enough to force her front legs apart after she had wrapped herself around me, that I got a fairly decent head start on her as I ran down mountain. The next few minutes was spent me running for my very life, as I could feel ice starting to pelt my back as she was trying to knock me down so she could finish what she started. I didn’t officially get away until I had run back under the snow-cap line, where the air was warm enough to melt the snow in mid-air and turn it back in rain. I knew I was more or less safe when I heard that banshee-like scream of the yuki-nu’uma partially melting in the above-zero air.”
“Oh my, that is quite the tale,” Hana mused, noting how it matched many of the legends surrounding the yuki-onna [snow-woman] of Japanese legend.
“Yeah… quite,” Vague deadpanned, as he was noticing how close River was sitting to Hana as he got toward the end of his tale.
“I spent another two weeks in a village near the snow-cap, as I had left my gear above the snow-line and I didn’t want anything else to do with white mares that could control the cold and snow to drain someone’s life right out of them. While I was there I did manage to get recipes for several dishes. Including a nice cabbage soup that they say is just perfect for a chilly day. Though, given where the calendar is, the only people who are ordering it are those who like cabbage anyway,” White River said, before taking one of Hana’s front hooves and holding it up in a very gentlecolt-y way.
“Though when the leaves turn, and the first autumn winds blow through, I would love for you to share a bowl with me, and maybe many other things?”
“Oh my, I just don’t know what to say. Well actually, there is one thing I can say…” Hana started, giving a soft smile as she blushed at the sudden intimate attention.
“And that’d be?” River asked, hopeful he had found a new beau.
“I’m already accounted for,” Hana said with a wide smile, as Vague looked around her back and shoulder at the stallion with a similar smile. But while Hana’s was a smile of gentle politeness, Vague’s smile was one of hidden malice.
“Yes… she is accounted for…” Vague added, having become well-heeled at concealing his actual emotions when he spoke, managing to not give away an obvious hint of the depth of anger he felt in that moment.
“Oh, so sorry, I am really sorry. You honestly have no idea how many times I make that mistake~” White River said, tenting his front hooves as if he were praying to Vague for forgiveness to his slight.
“To be honest, I probably could imagine. But I’ll let it slide since all you did was hold her hoof like any gentlecolt would,” Vague said.
“Thanks, well, the story was true though. I ended up going back to that village to see if they had seen that particular yuki-nu’uma since I wanted to get a photo of it, but they said it’s really hard to photograph them; they end up showing up as nothing but a snow twister most of the time on film,” River said, sighing as he did, appreciating the beauty of that creature when it wasn’t trying to devour his very essence.
“Right, anyway, can we get some menus over here, please?” Vague said, as he quelled his anger at the other stallion and got back to the business of the dinner date with Hana.
“Oh no problem, just give me a moment and I’ll have a lovely waitress over,” River replied, as he slowly walked away, still bowing in apology to Vague as he did.
“Well that was an interesting start to our evening…” Vague sighed as he looked at the young female Pegasus that brought Hana and his menus, carefully placing the laminated booklets on the table opposite where they were sitting.
“Good evening, my name is Easy Breeze, and I will be your waitress for this evening. The manager told me that you two were special guests, so all of your appetizers are on the house for the evening,” the candy pink and soft-orange-maned Pegasus mare said with a chipper tone and a wide smile.
“Doesn’t seem like White River was lying about the waitress either…” Vague said with a mildly interested tone, which got a ‘hrmph’ of mild frustration out of Hana.
“Well she is…” Vague responded, his tone shifting to borderline whine.
“Oh you two must be together~. Don’t worry you, will be taken good care of, just leave everything regarding food to us. In any case, I will be back with your complimentary water pitcher for your glasses in a minute,” Easy Breeze chirped as she left for where the pitchers were behind a photograph filled partition.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself, like a certain pale blue proprietor,” Vague sighed, shaking his head as he knew he had fallen into the same snare White River did not too long ago.
“Just so long as you realize that. Though to be honest, you’re right, he wasn’t lying about her. He must take care to pick who he hires as servers,” Hana responded, as the two of them looked through the first part of the booklets at the appetizers.
“Hrm, I kinda like how the flower mini-rolls sound: fresh-baked white bread bites, covered in the minced petals of several different wild flowers and a light butter glaze, for a different zesty bite every time,” Vague said, as his eyes were drawn to the picture of bread bites covered in an array of colors from white to red to yellow and orange.
“Oh this looks nice too, boiled potato poppers: make your mouth pop with bite-sized potatoes, boiled in a special spice mix; with a variety of fresh greens steamed and set inside. They kinda look like tiny little bowls, too…” Hana said as she pointed them out on Vague’s booklet.
“I guess we’re going with a platter of flower rolls and a platter of potato poppers to start with, then,” Vague said, as he waited for Easy Breeze to return with the water pitcher.
A minute or so later, Breeze was back at the table with a pair of pitchers of water on a cart for the couple, as she took the order for their appetizers.
“Alrighty, I’ll be back in a few minutes with your food,” the pink Pegasus said as she turned the cart around and began pushing it toward the kitchen.
Hana took a breath as she turned to Vague, who noticed her focusing her full attention on him now. “You know, thinking about it the last few minutes, I realized one of the things I like the most about you, Vague.”
“And what’s that?” Vague said, as he turned around to look at her, who was smiling that smile he loved so much.
“You know just the right thing to say, even if you take a few beats to say it. You have a great sense of verbal presence,” Hana responded.
“Wow… thanks. I mean, I try as hard as I can. My mom always told me that whenever I opened my mouth to speak I had to make it count. Never know what words may be your last,” Vague responded, his cheeks glowing faint red with blush.
“That’s another thing - as much animosity you had toward your mother, you still seem to carry her lessons about in your heart,” Hana mentioned, as the two of them turned more toward each other.
“Honestly, I have and still wonder about that. I mean, my mother said she had all this life planned out for me, and taught me lessons in the hope that I was going to make the obvious decision,” Vague started before he was interrupted.
“What did have in mind for you?” Hana asked, never thinking to do so until now.
“I was to go to Atlanta with her, and eventually, once I hit 16, I would be taught in how to be a youth minister. After that, I’d go to an licensed seminary, and I guess eventually become a Catholic priest at some point,” Vague responded.
“Oh right, most practicing Christian Haitians are Catholic. I tend to get confused on all the denominations of your, or at least your mother’s church,” Hana added as she gave it some more thought.
“You and me both, beau. I wasn’t having any of that, though I didn’t overtly reject the whole being a preacher or a priest thing. It was more I had my own path in the computer sciences I wanted to pursue, and my religion or lack thereof was always a background issue to me. We had a very long and very high volume yelling match about that not too long before my 16th birthday,” Vague said, shaking his head as he remembered the lowlights of that shouting match over the videophone.
“So that’s why you didn’t like her?” Hana asked, her voice soft but full of concern.
“No, honestly I think I didn’t like her because I don’t like just how much I’m like her. Just because the focus of my dogma is social rather than religious, doesn’t mean I don’t cling to it as tightly as she does. I think that’s why the Nightmare Parasite found fertile ground in me – so busy hating myself for being more of my mother’s son than I cared to admit was tainting everything else in my head,” Vague replied.
“So how do you feel about her now?” Hana asked, as she accepted the platters from Breeze and moved the napkins into place.
“I don’t know. Talking to my dad about her, and everything else surrounding my past, made me want to at least talk with her again now that I’m more or less clear of mind. Thing is, I have absolutely no idea where she is. The only thing I can figure is that her S.P.H. unit found her while they were sweeping through St. Louis,” Vague responded as he tried one of the flower mini-rolls.
“Oh man, this is great. Gotta be careful or I’ll get full on these before we get our entrées,” Vague mused as his mind was brought back to the present by the tangy and rich taste of the coated miniature bread rolls.
“Double for these potatoes, I bet they have a full course with this in it,” Hana said as she tried one of the potato poppers, and found it quite delightful as well.
“But yeah, just to sum up my thoughts on that, I won’t say she was a bad mother in regard to raising me. She gave me love, gave me a roof and food, at instilled in me lessons that were just as applicable to secular life as they were to a life following the Bible. I think in some subconscious way, she was preparing me regardless if I followed her into the church or not,” Vague said, as he began to come to some realizations about one Linda Bowman.
“That’s all you can ask for I guess. I’m… kinda ashamed to admit it… but I still feel ill will toward my parents too…” Hana said, as she turned her head away from Vague, embarrassed to say something like that out loud.
“I… I’m not sure why. It seems like you all got along fine whenever we were around them at the Labs or in Safe Haven,” Vague responded, confused as to what she meant.
“It’s… it’s just that… how could they be so scared? How could they be so scared to just help me get rid of that stupid notion that I was somehow a jinzou or they tampered with me in vitro?” Hana said, huffing as she began to feel the hurt starting to well up again.
“Jinzou?” Vague repeated in a confused tone.
“Sorry, an ‘artificial human’. They just let me wallow in that pit of self-doubt all those years. And I don’t understand it at all,” Hana said as she crossed her front legs.
“Not to excuse them, but it seems like they were so dead set on not validating such a stupid, in their eyes, notion that would be, that they felt just ignoring it was doing the right thing. We saw that it wasn’t for you, but I can only surmise that was their logic,” Vague said, as he put his front leg around the shoulders of Hana.
“I know… I know it’s not something that you should validate by acknowledging it. But still, I just can’t help but feel hurt about it,” Hana said, as she began to sniffle a bit.
“Don’t worry, even though my issues didn’t all go away when I was purged by the Elements, and yours haven’t with a simple apology and happy words, doesn’t mean that we’re doing anything wrong. Best thing to do is what we’re doing right now, just venting it all out and letting someone else help us through it,” Vague said as he hugged his beau sideways.
Hana cooed a bit, as she leaned into Vague some more. “That’s exactly what I meant from before. You know just what to say to me. That’s why I want to stay with you, Vague.”
“And you know just when to listen, and when to correct me when I start wandering off the path. Every stallion should pray they have a partner that could do that for them,” Vague responded, as the two of them met their foreheads together.
“Sorry to interrupt, but are you two ready to order your entrées?” Easy Breeze asked, notepad lined up on a holder on her service cart.
“Oh, oh right, sorry…” Vague said as he and Hana flipped through the pages of their menu to find what they wanted.
-----
As Vague continued to eat his dinner and some of the leftover flower rolls, Hana looked on with a bit of longing in her eyes.
“You know, Ao-chan. I was just wondering…” Hana started, her voice full of anxiety as she started.
“Yeah?” Vague responded, mouth half full.
“You know, um, Storm and Blaze are… very… um… intimate. And… I…” Hana started, as she looked around to see if anyone was listening in.
Vague froze in place, as he had a feeling where Hana was going with this line of inquiry.
“I… wanna know… when are we going to get to that level?” Hana finally finished, her cheeks as flush as Vague’s were at the moment.
Vague swallowed hard, completely unsure of how to answer the question. “I’m glad nothing was in my throat or I’d be choking right now.”
“I know it’s a little sudden but…” Hana started before Vague held his hoof up to stop her.
“It’s sudden in the sense that you’re asking me out of the clear blue. But, we’ve been together for a while and… well…” Vague started when Hana interrupted him.
“It seems like neither of us knows how or when to initiate?” Hana said, as she sighed.
“Seems like.” Vague added, sighing as well.
The two of them looked at each other as they fumbled around with the last bit of food on their respective plates.
“Seems like we both have issues with intimacy…” Vague said as he looked at Hana with some bit of concern.
“Not like we had a lot of time to learn each other like that while we were still human. Now we’d have to learn each other in bodies neither of us were born with,” Hana added.
Vague wondered a bit before he spoke up again. “I’m starting to think we’re gonna have to come clean about our little roadblock to Storm and Blaze. I would guess they have either cleared it themselves, or would have a better idea of what to do.”
Hana groaned and snorted, the idea unpalatable to her. “I don’t like talking to others about things like that. It just feels so… so…”
“Icky?” Vague suggested.
“Can’t come up with a better one,” Hana pouted.
“I feel what you’re feeling, the idea of talking to Storm of all Ponies about what to do when things get hot and heavy just feels awkward as all hell. At the same time, it’s either them or some kind of professional, and would you want to talk to some kind of stranger about all of this?” Vague asked.
The reaction he got from Hana surprised him – it looked like she was about to grunt in frustration again, but what he got was a giggle instead.
“Actually, you know, it’s kinda funny…”
“Huh? What do you mean, beau?” Vague asked, wondering what Hana was giggling at.
“Well, remember the first time we actually ‘caught’ them in the act back at the Conductor?” Hana asked, the smile on her face wide.
Vague thought for a bit, before he remembered the incident Hana was talking about. “Oh right, they were both pretty tipsy, and I guess Blaze didn’t cast her Sound Blocker spell properly. At least they weren’t too loud about it.”
“If they were we’d really have something to chide them about, wouldn’t we,” Hana mused as she giggled some more.
“In any case, it’s going to come to us eventually. If we rush it, we’ll probably just do something we’d regret later,” Vague thought aloud as the evening for them looked like it was winding down.
“Yeah, I just can’t help but think we’re not doing something right, though…” Hana replied, sighing as she did.
“If we are, we’ll figure it out eventually,” Vague said, as he waited for Easy Breeze to come back around.
“You know, we’re gonna have to do a double date here some time. This food is great and I really like the ambience of this place,” Hana thought aloud as she waited on the bill as well.
“Sounds like a good plan for the future,” Blue Vague replied, as he hailed Easy Breeze.
-----
“You know, baby… I get the feeling somepony was talking about us,” Golden Storm mused as Red Blaze laid her head across his chest, the two of them watching a movie to pass the time until their housemates returned.
“No telling unless you want to eavesdrop on the two of them at dinner,” Blaze responded with a bit of a joking tone.
“Nah, we said we’d leave them alone unless there was an emergency,” Storm responded, not wanting to go through a repeat of what happened during the Hearth’s-Warming Eve party.
A few more moments passed before a question popped into the head of Blaze.
“I wonder, how long before they cross the threshold?” Blaze asked of her coltfriend.
“I don’t think we’ll have to wait that long, at least not as long as us,” Storm responded, wondering how they managed to keep everything working when Blaze was on assignment.
“That’s true, at least hopefully it’s true. Then again, it’s always easier to slide downhill than it is walking uphill,” Blaze concluded.
“You know they’re gonna ask us about the actual mechanics before long right. I mean I can’t imagine those two going to see a professional stranger about something like this,” Blaze figured aloud.
“Wouldn’t surprise me, let’s just try to be ready when that day comes,” Storm responded, wondering where their collective paths were all going for the near and distant future.
===== ***** ====