The Saga Of The Caramel Mare.

by BurningBright

The Bottle and lies

Caramel was 6 years old by now, 6 and a half in a few weeks, it had been 2 years since Auntie Violet ran away, Caramel didn't blame her in the least on that. Dad was drinking a lot more lately. Every day fell into the same old routine, wake up stare at the ugly colt in the mirror, supress that cold empty feeling in your heart, put on the mask, plaster on that fake plastic smile, go to school.

At school try your best to dodge the bullies, try to stay focused, must get through the day, don't let your grades slip, don't do anything to get into any trouble. The last thing you want is for him to get mad at you. Lunchtime make some excuse for not payting for school lunch, dad packed you a lunch, yeah that's it, nothin to see here. Next make some excuse for preferring to eat alone, that way nopony notices that your packed lunch is made up of whatever you could scrounge up from the fridge that wasn't beer while he wasn't looking. Realise your appoetite just isn't there anymore, then eat anyway. School bell goes. Trot on home all the way thinking “please don't be home, please don't be home PLEASE DON'T BE HOME”.

Push open the door, sounds quiet ,good, just a few more steps and you'll be in your room and saf- “what time do you call this boy?”

Caramel felt a chill run down his spine, he was home this whole time? Turn to greet him, trying to ignore the reek of booze, everythings OK, nothing wrong here right? “I'm sorry I took a few minutes longer than normal getting home dad, we had homework assigned by Miss Rowanoak , I had to hand out the papers to the rest of the class, I'd best just go up to my room and get started.”

Dad seemed almost lost in thought at this, he paused for just a moment, Caramel took the moment and made a break for it, dashing for his room while the old man was distracted and shutting the door behind him with a sigh of relief. Homework may be boring but it beat the hay outta staying round dad when he'd been drinking.

Mighty gave a sigh, maybe he should have offered to help the kid out with homework, after all he was the man of the house, surely that was his responsibility. Then he remembered the look of fear in Caramels eye, yeah he'd done enough damage, it was better to leave well enough alone. The kid was smart, perfect grades across the board except sports. Maybe it was for the best he let it lie. He loved that kid as only a father could, but every time he saw him he couldn't help seeing Caramel really had her beautiful eyes, seeing fear in them felt wrong, alien somehow. That kid was a walking reminder of everything he'd lost, and he hated that, he loved the kid with everything he had, but seeing him made him angry. He drank to get away from that, because it was sure as tartarus better than hurting himself or somepony else.

The bottle felt warm in his hoof, and damn it he wanted to help the kid, maybe he would, but first he wanted to finish these ciders before they all got warm. The first swig made him feel a little better, he was just overthinking things yet again. He'd been doing that a lot lately, ever since he woke up to find violet had packed her stuff and gone. Something about loneliness made ya think harder, and the harder ya thought the worse you felt the more you drank. Now igf only he could forget why he started to begin with he'd be happy.

The cider tasted warm and disgusting, yet somehow comforting, like an old friend. Not always welcome but so long as they were there and familiar you'd hang on, and there he goes rambling again. Getting shakily to his hooves he headed to Caramels room to help, raising his hoof to knock.

Caramel was sat quietly as possible in his room when he heard the knock, he froze instantly, “oh buck oh buck OH BUCK” he thought to himself inside his head like some kind of mantra, he tried to ignore the unsteady knocking but that just made Mighty knock harder, Caramel made the noises of a pony just woken up, then asked who it was.

“Who do ya think it is kid? Celestia deciding to pop in for afternoon tea? Now open this door.” shouted Mighty, he felt bad for a moment about that but soon suppressed it, after all this was his house, the door creaked open to reveal Caramel, looking absoluterly terrified who held it while he entered the room. “Where's your homework?“ Mighty demanded , “I'll help you to finish it.”

By that time of course Caramel had finished their work awhile back, “It's all done dad” they said, “I finished it about an hour back.” Knowing the safest course of action Caramel kept their head down as they said it, being as quiet and respectful as they could.

Mighty frelt anger rising within him again, there was no way the kid had been home long enough to have done that surely. He'd only had time for a few bottles, that meant the kid was lying to him. “YOU'RE A BUCKING LYING PILE OF HORSEAPPLES YOU KNOW THAT?” he snarled, rounding on Caramel , “there's no way on bucking equestria you could have finished so quickly.”

“Dad it's after midnight, I've finished my homework, maybe you just lost track” Caramel replied calmly, suddenly realising their mistake and wishing they could stuff the words back into their own mouth, but emboldened by their dads lack of response they figured they were gonna be in trouble anyway, so in for a copper in for a bit. “Even check the clock if it helps.” Instantly regretting ever having opened their mouth they watched as Mighty pondered for a moment.

“You know what kid? I think I will” He growled, “and when I do and I find out for sure you've been lyin to me today you'll seriously wish you hadn't tried it and had just done your bucking homework right from the start.” With that Mighty got back to his hooves and made it back downstairs to the kitchen. Sure enough the clock read midnight just as Caramel had said. Caramel breathed a sigh of relief for a moment then the world exploded in stars and colours. “changing the clocks to mess with your old man kid? That's just low. “ Snarled mighty, checking his hoof for damage then turning away from Caramel, who was trying her best not to cry, “and stop that whimpering before I give ya something to really cry about.” At that Caramel turned and ran to his room and shut the door quickly hiding in the closet they bit their hoof to stop the noise they made as the tears washed down their face. “AND DO YOUR BUCKING HOMEWORK” came the roar from downstairs as Caramel curled up and tried their best to go to a place in their head that Mighty could never reach.