The Steadfast Sky

by Greytercakes

XXIX : Parents

The Steadfast Sky : Parents
The Grey Potter
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/11495/The-Steadfast-Sky
http://cosmicponyfanfiction.tumblr.com/

~Celestia~

“So... when I was little, before you were born, I was walking home from school and I found this cat on the street. I brought him home, thinking I could hide him, but,” I chuckled. “His paws were dirty, and he was leaving tracks everywhere! I tried to get some water to wash him, but that only made things worse, running around the house, hissing...! Oh, mother was throwing a fit, but father!” I laughed aloud. “The look on his face! He picked up a broom and shooed the little thing out!”

Luna leaned against me as we walked, dragging her hooves and kicking up the sandy dirt of the road. Why wasn’t she saying anything...?

“Luna?”

“That story didn’t really have to do with dad,” she said, kicking at a pebble.

“Sorry?”

“He only came in at the end. You just told me a story about you bringing home a cat.”

“Well, um...” I tried to picture the scene in my head. I could see father, how he moved and acted. It certainly seemed about him to me... I nudged my sister’s head, a smile to encourage her own. You can do it, Celestia! Your sister needs you! “Let me see if I can describe it for you.”

~¤~

Mother leaned over the railing, red hair frazzled, sparkling shawl askew. She flicked her hoof, almost afraid of the little mudball ten feet below her. “Get it, dear!” she almost spat. “Get it! Get rid of it!” I looked through the railings beside her, staring down at the poor little kitty, its fur still wet with layers of mud and the soap that was supposed to clean it.

Father, tense, jaw squared under his perfectly coiffed blue mane, eased sideways, broom held aloft in his aura. He didn’t mind the mud from the floor, even though it scuffed his perfectly polished hooves. He had a purpose, and nothing swayed a stallion of his composure. He lowered the broom’s straw end, and lightly swiped it forward, nudging the cat, making it tumble sideways a few steps.. The cat looked almost indignant. Yes, thats what that cat’s face was like. Irritated and downright offended! But Father nudged it again, forcing it to stumble even closer to the door.

The cat hissed, looked like it was going to pounce! Arched its back and everything, hair on end. “Look out, father!” I remember shouting that. He didn’t look up at me, I think, and then he just bonked the little cat on the head! It hissed again, but he wasn’t afraid as he swept it right out the door, slamming it right shut.

One of the maids, um... Gab? Gab brought out a bucket to wipe up the mud, but father shook his head. “Celly, get down here and clean up this mess.” So, I cleaned up all of the floors... and it hurt, mind, I wasn’t used to cleaning. But afterwards, he gave me a cup of ice cream!

~¤~

“Is that a bit better, Luna?”

My sister frowned at the ground... angry? Was that better or worse than sad?

“Luna...?”

“Why would mom act like that?” she asked, so suddenly, kicking up a puff of dirt.

“Hm?”

“She was scared of a little cat?”

“Well, no,” I laughed, up at the clouded over sky, “I suppose she was more afraid of getting mud on her fancy dresses!”

“Really? Is that what mother was like?”

“Hm...” I let us walk a bit longer while I combed it over in my mind. “ You know, I actually didn’t see much of mom. But don’t fret! Let me try to tell a story about her.”

~¤~

Orange. Mom was dressed in this kind of poofy dress, and the light going through it made the floors orange. I don’t know why, but I found it fascinating. I tried to fiddle with the cloth, tried to make it light different areas. I think I thought it was a mirror, and I could direct its light...? I’m not certain, I remember I was very little at the time.

“No no, Celestia. Mother can’t play now. Mother’s getting ready for ___!” I’m sorry, for all the life in me, I can’t remember what she had to go to. She was a socialite, you see, she had a lot of fancy parties and such.

Anyway, she’d step lightly around me, trying to tug the cloth from under my hooves “No, no, Celestia. You’ll tear the material!” She had a really sharp voice... no, a very practiced voice. Fine, and clear, specific and enunciated. It was... like our crystal glasses, you remember those? Glittering, detailed and specifically carved. That’s how mother felt.

“Honey. Honey Dough.” She would always call for the nanny in a very specific way, and it was always my cue to hold on tightly to her. But I’d be pried away, “Celestia, be good for the nanny, mother will play later.”

~¤~

“Why would mom do that?” Luna snapped me out of my daydream. I fumbled with a few more words and... Oh, she had such an angry look on her face... Was it something I said? I floundered with words for a moment, crippled. Such anger...

“Well... well, well she hired a nanny to take care of me, so I wouldn’t always be under her feet. I mean... Mother was always so sweet when we were together.”

“She sounds stupid.”

“Luna!” I snapped.

“She sounds like she didn’t care about you at all.”

“ No...!” Luna, are you hurting this much? Goodness gracious... “No, she was very nice! Let me tell you a better story.”

~¤~

Every year, the Halls... you remember the Halls, right? Well, they would always throw an absolutely splendid Hearth’s Warming Eve party. But it was, well, an adult party. The kind where everyone stands around with drinks hovering at their sides, talking about things I didn’t care for. The kind where none of the hors d'oeuvres looked like something a child would like to eat. Like celery sticks without peanut butter, and desserts made without sugar. Where you have to wear a fancy saddle dress, even though it itches and doesn’t let you run around without tripping. And the Halls themselves, well, they didn’t have young kids anymore, only older stallions. So they didn’t think to have a play area for the younger children that attended. Not that many of these parties had a proper play area anyway... I think only one party I ever attended ever did... Nevermind, I’m getting off track.

When I complained to mother, she asked me to walk beside her and talk to the guests. She would introduce me, and tell me to say hello, proper and ladylike. The other guests asked me questions, the same questions, over and over, and I answered over and over, bowing and curtseying all the time. Lots of ponies complimented me on how polite I was, and mom left early, long before sunset, to buy me a piece of cake on the way home, because I had been a proper lady. She was very, very proud of me.

~¤~

“Well?” I smiled. I remembered this being a good memory, though all the details blur together. The party, mother, the faces of the guests... Was father even at that party? It wouldn’t make sense for him not to be, but... Such a warm, wonderful memory. Even in that horrible city, there could be some wonderful, gentle times.

“Maybe I’m missing something.” Luna sighed, my cue to remember how bad I was at this. “I’m not getting a good picture of mom...”

I laughed lightly. “Maybe I’m just bad at picking these stories...”

And then, another silence fell between us. I stared up at the clouds, the leaves that blocked out what little light there already was. There must be some story I can tell. Something, anything... finally, Luna spoke up, demand clear.

“Can you tell me about dad again?”

“Alright!” I wracked my brain, trying to find a good one. “Let me see...”

~¤~

I remember lying on the library floor, flipping very, very carefully through my favorite storybook, trying to not tear the pages, trying to not disturb the gold foil, already starting to crack and flake. Father sat behind his massive desk, in a cushiony leather armchair. I remember trying to crawl up onto it... not then, I mean, another time entirely. He, and the chair, they smelled like his cologne. Even when he didn’t leave the house all day, he always put on his cologne. It was always really heavy. Kind of sour, but floral, underneath it all.

Now, his desk. You wouldn’t remember, they took it away almost immediately. But his desk, the bottom half of the front board wasn’t all the way there, leaving a gap just above the floor. I don’t really know why, but I remember being able to crawl under it.

Back to that day, I nudged the book ahead of me as I scrawled under that gap. My father’s pen was scratching away, and on a quieter level, the light tinkling sound of his aura, something so difficult to hear unless it’s quiet... I pushed the book between father’s hind feet, placed firmly on the ground as he sat in his armchair. They lifted, so slightly, as his body shifted to look down at me, forehooves still on the desk.

“Father, I don’t know a word.” And he asked which one, so I pointed.

“That’s ‘star’.”

“Oh. And this one?”

“Playful.”

“That one?”

“Friend.”

“That one?”

“Celly, do you need me to teach you how to read?”

“No, I know how.”

“Do you?”

“I know how.”

Then, he got up. The chair scraped backwards, I remember it being very loud. His aura picked up the book and he told me if I wanted to learn, it was far too advanced for me. He gave me a different book, a smaller book with flat colors painted on the cover. He told me to recite my ABC’s while I looked at it.

~¤~

She sighed. Such a small little sigh, trying to hide her exasperation certainly! Recover, Big Sis!

“Oh! And when you were born!”

~¤~

Father had told me that it was very, very quiet time, and I was supposed to stay in my room until I was called. I could hear strange voices in the hallway, hooves I didn't recognize beating up and down the stairs, and I couldn’t help myself. I kept poking my head out the door, only to be shooed back in. “We don’t want you caught underhoof!” But being alone in my room almost felt like a punishment.

The next thing I know, I was in father’s office again, reading books as he--

~¤~

“What was I like when I was born?”

“What?” Well that was sudden! I didn’t even have time to get to the good part...

“What did you think of me, like, the first thing?”

“Well... Oh!” I laughed, suddenly struck by a memory, clear and perfect. “Oh my goodness, such a funny little thing!”

~¤~

Things were really quiet as we walked down the hallway. A strange pony, one I had never seen before with a doctor’s cutie mark passed by my father, nodding his greeting. We entered what was going to eventually be your room... but back then, it was more of a secondary tea room, or drawing room. Though it was still day out, the room was filled with light from four or five lamps, and it smelled like them, like hot copper and milk.

Mom was splayed out on the couch, that same ratty old thing that was in our drawing room. Her hair was tangled, brow sweaty, but talking with one of the maids, I don’t even know if she saw me come in. She was flopped on her side, tummy still bloated, udders popped out and round. I remember that clearly, because it looked so strange to me. I wasn’t used to seeing my mother like that, with strange bulges hanging off of her... I felt like I was staring, and I knew staring was bad, especially with mother in such a... a bizarre state. So I tried to find something else to look at...

And there you were, on the other side of the room. Just a little blue ball of ruffled fur, hardly a mane to speak of, eyes wide as you stared at the world around you. You always had such wide eyes when you were little, like you were constantly shocked. While I watched, you struggling to your feet. Honey was urging you to stand, to walk.

“So missus, what do you think you’ll name the little bundle of joy?”

“Oh... it’s a girl, right?”

“Yes, missus.”

“We decided on Luna then, right father?”

I don’t think I quite understood what was going on, as father walked past me. I was just watching you, walking back to you, stumbling towards Honey and staring at your feet as if you didn’t expect them to work, and were just so surprised when they did. Your legs were held too wide, and you kept slowly slipping back down to the floor, onto your stomach.

“Come here, Luna. Just walk a little bit more.” You stumbled forward a bit, stood still, and slipped back down again.
“Should it take this long, Honey?” Mom’s voice drifted from the other side of the couch, “Celestia stood just fine in the first five minutes.”

“Some foals take longer than others,” Honey replied, voice tired, “Don’t worry, missus. She’s a healthy one, your Luna.”
I walked right up to you then, I don’t think you even noticed, so alarmed by your own feet. You smelled like talcum powder, I think you had been washed. Honey Dough was saying a few more things, like ‘isn’t she cute, Celestia? that’s your little sister, Luna!’ You fell down again, and your hoof bumped against mine. Really soft, really warm.

Now, I have no idea what was going on in my head at the time, no idea.

But I picked you right up, scooped you in between my forelegs best I could, and dragged you over to mother, like a particularly large doll. I clung to you, warm and soft against my body, and stared up at my mother, my father, the maid...

“I’m keeping her,” I declared.

~¤~

“And then, everyone just started laughing!”

“They laughed?!” Luna stared up at me, eyes wide, maybe a hint of a smile on her face!

“I have no idea why!” I laughed along with the memory. “I didn’t know where you had come from, barely knew what you were! I don’t know, maybe I thought you were some sort of toy?! But goodness...” I slowed down a bit, trying to collect myself. “You were a lovely little foal. Rather adorable!”

“Was I really, really little?”

“Really, really little.”

And there she returned to a frown. But more of a puzzled frown, no longer quite so upset.

“I don’t remember this at all...” she said, “What was I like back then?”

“Well...”

Comments

[General Spritz]

Augh, so short.

[kickflank]

Celestia pulled a Rena. "I'm taking her home with me!"

[Runmaru]

Ahh, so... adorable!
I've been looking forward for this.

[OutrageousOstrich]

Good use of 2nd person narrative.
Also, bloody adorable

[musicluvr1974]

Agreed 1000x with all of the last 3 comments!

"I'm keeping her!" Awwww....!!

[Greytercakes]

1472309
Based on a true story....

Just wanted to say thank you for all your kind comments It's really fun to read a person's experiences as they make their way through a story! Very glad you're liking it so far!

[Kapuchu]

“I’m keeping her,” I declared.

...That was brilliant.