The Only Truth

by bahatumay

Chapter 3

I took a breath. Then another. Then another. I couldn't help but giggle with excitement. Normally, of course, breathing isn't that hard. But at that time, I had my head submerged in the bathtub, and was breathing under water, and I was more than a little bit proud of this fact.

Suddenly, my lungs filled with water, and let me tell you, that burns. I jerked my head out of the tub and gasped for air, coughing and choking uncontrollably and spewing water everywhere.

“Ne- *cough* needs work,” I sputtered. For some reason, that spell just gave out every once in a while, and I wasn't sure yet what it was. And, obviously, the test runs tended to end like this, with much painful coughing and spluttering. Apparently, a talent for creating new spells doesn't mean they'll be perfect spells.

But I had quite the line-up of spells I'd created. Twilight had helped me publish them in journals, fancy expensive magazine thingies that I don't even remember the name of. Apparently, Celestia herself would sometimes publish magic research in these journals, albeit under a pseudonym.

I had a pseudonym, too. It's not like I didn't want to be famous—I did, really I did—but more than that I wanted to be like Twilight, and Twilight often published things under lots of other names. She thought that magic was its own reward; not to be used for special acknowledgments and stuff. Which I suppose I can agree with.

Then again, “Revered Beauty” had become known enough to be invited to a couple smaller conferences. Her assistant, a certain Sundown, had respectfully turned them down, though.

...where was I going with this?

Oh, yeah. Me out of the bath. I had dried off and was at my desk working on rewriting the flow yet again when Twilight walked up.

“Cherish, how long have you been working on this?” she asked.

“Only a little bit,” I lied, trying to make sure I didn't look sleepy.

I guess I’m not a good liar, because she came close and rested a hoof on top of mine. “Maybe you should take a quick break. Spend tomorrow out on the town or something. I've found that's very helpful when I hit a wall.”

So I did. Next day I was outside, trying not to think about my water breathing spell, and I ran into Dinky. Dinky is this adorable little unicorn filly being raised by her cousin, who's a pegasus. Something happened to their parents or something or I don't even know, but they're together now. Derpy—that's her cousin—she tries hard, but sometimes... well... you know. At least, I did.

“Hey, Dinky,” I said. “What's up?”

“Oh, nothing,” she said.

I knew that wasn’t true. “Oh?” I said simply.

“I was wondering... is Twilight Sparkle your real mother?”

I was, to be frank, taken aback. “Where did that come from?” I asked, a bit harsher than I meant to. She wasn’t my mother. I knew it. But at night, I would imagine that she was, complete with birthday parties and awful pictures.

Dinky rubbed her hooves together nervously. “I kindof thought... well, you both like magic, you both like to read, so I thought...”

You know, I thought, she would have been a great mother. She wouldn't have given me an ironic name and then thrown me away. But being adopted by was a close second. I leaned down to her eye level. “Want to hear a secret?” I said.

She nodded.

“A mother isn't whoever squeezed you out from in between her hind legs all bloody and crying,” I said, grinning at the disgusted expression that flashed over her face. “A mother is the one who loves you and cares about you. A mother puts your needs over her own. A mother is the one that influences you the most and would do anything for you. Now, I bet you know a pony who does all that, right?”

Her eyes were brightening already. “Yeah, I do!”

“I bet you call her 'mom' already, don't you?”

“Yeah, I do!”

“How about you go tell her that you love her?”

“I will!” she said happily before turning and bouncing away.

That conversation would come back to bite me in the butt. But not for a bit. Actually, that week was a week where a ton of things I said came and bit me in the butt, and some fairly quickly.

I see you looking. Stop staring at my butt. It's not actually bitten and I'm not into that.

That means... uh... that’s something you should ask your mother.

So it was the week of my chosen birthday, and I started a conversation with Twilight over breakfast.

“You know, today's a special day.”

Twilight made the motions of 'keep it down'. “You mean like your anniversary of being here? I thought that was tomorrow. I'm sure Pinkie's already planning some kind of anniversary party.”

“Well, yeah, I guess it is; but today is my birthday.”

Twilight flinched. “It is?” she asked.

“Well, I think it is,” I admitted. “I'm not really sure. I kindof just figured a season from what the matron said about when I got abandoned, picked a day, and stuck with it.”

Twilight nodded, seemingly relieved. Back then, I thought it was because she was afraid she had forgotten my birthday. “Makes sense.”

“And I've been thinking...” I steeled myself. “I think I'd like to have a birthday party.”

“Cherish!” Twilight hissed, but it was too late.

Pinkie Pie popped out of a closet that was far too small for her, eyes crinkled up as a wide smile spread across her face. “Did somepony say 'party'?”

“I did,” I said. “I think I'd like a birthday party. It's for today.”

Pinkie Pie gasped, and I could swear she lifted herself off the ground she gasped so hard. “No way!” she exclaimed.

“Yes way!” I responded.

Pinkie began to vibrate. Literally, she was airborne and shaking. “I’m so happy~!” she proclaimed. “It’s a birthday party I never thought I would throw! I gotta go get set up! I gotta invite everypony! Pinkie Pie, away!” And she disappeared in a flash of pink, leaving behind a pink contrail.

I looked at Twilight, and she shrugged. “If you value your sanity, don’t think about that too hard.”

Worked for me.

* * *

I’d been to many parties my time in Ponyville. I had been to birthday parties, cuteciñera parties (no, I didn’t have one; there was no way I was putting on a frilly dress and getting my makeup done, no matter how much whining Rarity gave me), anniversary parties, even a party celebrating a beaver having grown back a tooth.

I dunno about that one. Maybe Pinkie was having a slow week and needed to hit a quota.

But there was nothing like this party. I mean, it hadn’t even started yet and the library looked like Pinkie’s Party Cannon and Sugarcube Corner had exploded all over it. I mean, cupcakes lined the walls, brownies organized by flavor, a 'Happy Birthday, Cherish!' cake complete with a little fondant version of me--Bon Bon had even managed to get my cutie mark spot on--more balloons than I had ever seen before, streamers that matched my color scheme, I tell you, it was awesome. I mean, I’m not even that big on being social, and I was still excited.

I was avoiding Pinkie and sampling one of the many cupcakes when I saw Big Macintosh bringing in a barrel. You’ve never seen this stallion, so… let’s see… imagine the biggest pony you’ve seen. Then make him twice as big, and red as an apple, and put a sprig of wheat in his mouth. That’s Big Mac. And that barrel probably could have held two or three ponies, easy.

I walked over. curious. “Whatcha got there?” I asked.

“Cider.”

That’s another thing about Mac. He doesn’t speak much. Unless he’s mad. And I’ve only seen that once, when they lost a third of the south orchard to blight.

“Apple cider?”

Mac cracked a smile. “It ain’t pear cider,” he chuckled.

“That’s a big barrel.”

Mac looked disparagingly at it. “Eeyup, but it might still not be big enough.”

“For what? Bathing?”

That might have been the wrong thing to say, because he reached out one of his huge hooves and pulled my head down. I was surprised by the rough treatment, to say the least; but then my unspoken questions were answered when Rainbow Dash flew over my head, missing me by inches, and crashed into the ground, knocking aside balloons and barely missing the cake table.

She popped her head up. “I heard ‘cider’,” she breathed.

Mac pointed at her.

“Rainbow Dash?” I asked. “She’s the one you’re worried about?”

“Eeyup.”

Rainbow shot to her hooves and started over to the barrel. “This is something else.” She looked back over her shoulder. “Where’s Zoom? She’s gotta try this stuff.”

“Try what stuff?” Zoom had taken the sane route, and had walked into the library. Then again, she had crashed into the statue once--Twilight keeps this huge wooden pony bust on her center table--and I guess her skull wasn’t as thick as Rainbow’s.

Rainbow rested a hoof reverently on the barrel. “This… is cider. This is better than ambrosia and whatever other mystical foods there are.” She looked over at us, and Zoom and I both had matching expressions of confusion. Clearly, we needed instructing. “Mac? Pour us a mug.”

Mac shook his head. “Nope. Party hasn’t started yet.”

Rainbow’s everything drooped. Ears, wings, tail, lower lip, everything. She put on a pair of puppydog eyes and her lower lip quivered as she wordlessly pleaded for some cider.

Mac didn’t bat an eye. “Ah’ve resisted my sister for longer. Do your worst.”

So yeah. Poor Rainbow had to wait for the party to start and everypony to sing to me and Pinkie to cut the cake before Mac finally cracked open the cider.

The line formed instantly, with Rainbow in the front and Zoom close behind. Applejack was serving, and she made a point that I would be the first to taste it. Now, Applejack is one of the smartest ponies I know. By that, I mean she’s not book smart, but she’s street smart. She poured me my first and it was a small, halfway full mug. I looked at her as if hurt, and she winked at me (but kept eye contact the whole time). “It’s somethin’ like you’ve never had before. You’d prolly better take it slow at first.” And that was clearly meant to be an order.

I looked down at my drink. It was frothy, but it looked really good. So I took a small sip, unsure of what to expect.

My tastebuds exploded and I almost melted right there. It was the perfect blend of sweetness, but a hint of spices, and… You’re going to just have to try it for yourselves.

No, I don’t have any with me. If I did, I would have drunk it already. Heh… interesting choice of words...

That day, I learned that cider only froths when it’s alcoholic. And I had never tasted alcohol before. At the orphanage, we didn’t even get chocolate.

Nope. No chocolate. Actually, my first time trying chocolate is a pretty funny story, too, but maybe I’ll tell it later.

Anyway, that cider is delicious, so I kept drinking it. It got bad enough that Applejack cut me off, so I stuck to swiping drinks from other ponies while they weren't looking, with varying rates of success. Apparently, I’m a very friendly drunk. I was just glad Lyra’s a friendly drunk, too. And that Bon Bon is fairly forgiving. I guess she’d just had her mane done that morning and, well… let’s just say mint frosting doesn’t go well with pink and blue mane.

At least, I didn’t think so. Lyra didn’t compla- You know what, let’s just move on.

So it’s midway through my party, and I’m completely hammered. I mean, I’m drunk off my rocker off my porch off my property drunk. And it suddenly occurs to me that I haven't seen Twilight recently. Now, sober Cherish would have realized she was just in the bathroom or something, which, incidentally, she was. Drunk Cherish, on the other hoof, was convinced that Twilight was lost and needed to be found, so I wandered around, calling for Twilight. Of course, over the music and party noises, she couldn’t hear me. Soon, I came to the brilliant conclusion that I could use magic to find her. Except I didn’t have a ‘find hidden things’ spell, so I made one up.

Yep. While drunk. I don’t recommend getting drunk, though. It leaves you with a massive hangover. But that’s for tomorrow, see? I’m getting ahead of myself again.

So drunk Cherish is walking around, flashing my spell everywhere. I found three bits under the sofa, a book Twilight had lost, that bead from Rainbow’s necklace, and something under the first step of the staircase. Now, Twilight wasn’t there, obviously. But I remember there being something there.

Even the next morning, when I woke up bright and early and with a killer hangover. Twilight had me stay in bed all that morning (not like I would have gone anywhere anyway) and made me something from a well-worn piece of paper. Guess she’d had experience waking up feeling like your insides want to be on your outsides.

That day was pretty uneventful. I think Pinkie wanted to throw me an afterparty, but I teleported a watermelon over her head and walked away. It was a good three months before I felt up to going to another party.

Anyway… that day was pretty chill. But that night… I couldn’t sleep that night. Something bothered me, and I couldn’t remember what. So I went downstairs to get a drink of water and as I walked back, I suddenly remembered that secret thing under the first step.

Lighting my horn, I pulled the top off and looked under the step. Underneath lay a somewhat thin sheaf of papers. I flipped over the top one and looked at it. Mortgage information, diplomas, loan information, a birth certificate made for someone named Cherish, a death certifi-

I did a double take. Cherish? I flipped back through and pulled it out, examining it closely. Born to Twilight Sparkle this day of… that looked familiar. It was the date I had chosen for my birthday. At first, I wondered if this had been a late present that Twilight had forgotten about. I mean, the ‘sire’ spot was empty, and Twilight was definitely single.

And then I wondered, why would she leave that somewhere hidden if she just intended on giving it to me anyway? Maybe it referred to another Cherish, I thought, grasping at straws. But as I read the filly’s description, complete with mane color and stripe color, I knew it was talking about me.

So my next thought was, it's a fake. A prank of some kind. Well, I put that thing through every spell I could think of. Age-revealing spells. Counterfeit-exposing spells. I even tried to light it on fire to see if it held a hospital-grade protective spell.

It did. This thing was real. This birth certificate was real and it was mine. I sank to my haunches as I stared at that paper, that horrible paper, as it shook my world and turned it upside down by just existing. Emotions I couldn't name flowed through me, everything from shock to betrayal to pain to rage and anger.

Yep. That’s right.

Twilight Sparkle was my birth mother, the same one who abandoned me eighteen years ago.

Author's Note:

What an unexpected twist!
-nobody ever

Comments

[Cold Spike]

welll shit

[Kori Kitsune]

Nice twist.

[Rhulain]

reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Rickey-OMG.gif

[La Barata]

[Chaos Knux]

What a !!!

...Except it was given away by the cover image.

[MidnightCrew]

CALLED IT

[Bat_Horse]

2849660
i was looking for something to do while waiting for a response in changeling panic when i found this. you are a genius.

[Daralact]

This story still being written?

[bahatumay]

6132646
…maybe?
I've had a basic idea of where I want to go with it and I've already written the ending scene; but connecting the two is a bit difficult. I don't want to give up on Cherish, though.

[VampireVinyl]

dead jim