Inverno in F Minor

by CrackedInkWell

34: Confrontation in Bb Minor.

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“What’s pregnant?” Inverno asked as he and Cadence were headed towards the Throne room.

“Well, to put in in the simplest of terms,” she answered. “It’s when that a mare like myself carries a foal where her belly is until it is big enough to be born. The baby gets its nutrition from the mother for several months until it’s ready to come out.”

Inverno stared at her, looking at her stomach before looking back to her again, “Isn’t that scary though?”

“What is?”

“To have somepony else be growing inside you?”

Cadence giggled at this, “It’s just part of life Inverno. I’m not scared at all, if anything, I’m looking forward to my little baby to be born.”

“Are you sure?” Inverno questioned, “Isn’t having somepony coming out of you going to be painful?”

“So I’ve heard,” the Princess nodded.

“But why go through with it? Why would you want to have a foal when you’re going to be in pain?”

The pink Alicorn paused, putting a hoof to her chin to come up with a proper response. “Inverno, have you ever heard the phrase: through great pain comes greater beauty?” the colt shook his head. “Can you figure out what it means?”

Inverno thought for a minute, “Does it mean that although you put yourself in something that you don’t want to, the result is worth all the pain?”

“That’s right,” she nodded, “Besides, I’m doing this because, in a way, I wanted to go through this because I always wanted to have a family of my own. I used to look after foals since I was young. Of course, I would be lying if I said that it was quite a challenge being a foalsitter who had to take care of those who are much younger than you. But at the same time, there’s a kind of joy when they’re being playful.”

“How so?”

The Princess of Love gave off a nostalgic smile, “I remember listening to them at their playtime, the things they would come up with is so honest, so innocent, and bursting with creativity when they pretend. At times I wonder if all of us were born as natural storytellers, where we tell them by acting out, drawing pictures, or simply use toys to tell their stories. But when some of us grow up, we tend to forget how to pretend except for artists like yourself. Only instead of toys, you make believe by creating art.”

“Is that all?” Inverno raised an eyebrow.

“That, and I find foals to be adorable.”

The colt rolled his eyes, “So, why are you taking me to the Throne room again?”

“Remember a couple of days ago how you were able to patch up with Shining and Spike?”

“What about it?” At this point, they were at the doors to the Throne room, Cadence opened them with her magic after she picked Inverno up and carried him into the vast room.

“I want you to meet a few ponies,” she said as she lowered the young unicorn to the ground, closing the door in front of her. Inverno looked around, and to his horror, there in the center of the room were twenty-three, very familiar Crystal Ponies.

“Cadence,” Inverno turned to the door, quickly finding that the handles were surrounded in a light blue aura. “Cadence!” the colt banged on the door. “Cadence! Let me out!”

“Inverno?” he heard his name being called behind, along with the clip-clop of hooves that slowly approached him.

The young unicorn could feel his heartbeat picking up a staccato pace as he speeds up his hard knocking on the locked door. “For the love of Celestia, Cadence, open the door!” he screamed in terror. “Cadence please!”

One of the Crystal ponies called his name again, Inverno turned to see that he was surrounded with no way of getting out. He quickly wished that he’d read that chapter about teleportation that Twilight had given him. The unicorn’s body quaked, “No, please no!” feeling trapped, the only thing that he was able to do was to curl up into a tight ball, covering his head with his hooves in vain, hoping to protect himself from the rain of hooves that were about to unleash.

To Inverno, the pause was the longest minute of his life. He waited for the animals to finish what they started, waited for the pain that these same ponies were about to descend upon him. The colt waited in dread for this sudden betrayal that the Alicorn Princess to be fulfilled.

Instead of the beating he expected, he heard hooves approaching him. Then to his utter confusion, he felt a pair of forelegs being wrapped around him. Then another… then three more… and from there, the hug multiplied.

Inverno creaked open an eye and saw that these same ponies that had beaten him were now hugging him. “Wh-… What?” At first, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Are these Crystal ponies really showing him mercy? What was going on here?

“Inverno,” he looked up at the mare who was the first to hug him. The pail unicorn saw that, along with everypony else’s, didn’t have the rage he remembered, but remorse. “We’re… We’re sorry.”

“…. What?”

“Kid,” one of the stallions started, “For everything that we just put you through, we’re sorry.”

Inverno’s jaw hit the floor. Did they just… “You’re not really the monster that we thought you were,” said another stallion.

“W-What makes you s-say that?” Inverno stuttered.

“Monsters don’t feel fear,” another mare explained, “Are you really afraid of us?”

“Um… y-yes,” the young unicorn admitted.

Twenty-three ponies looked at each other before turning back to the colt. “We’ve seen your apology,” one of them said.

“Huh?”

“That memorial thing you’ve been working on,” one of the mares stated. “I, for one am actually impressed that you of all ponies had been composing a memorial for us at such a young age.”

“You’re still working on it, aren’t you?” a stallion said, “Cadence showed us the beginning, and we can’t wait to see more.”

“For a colt, you’re surprisingly talented.”

“When can we expect to see the rest?”

Inverno was speechless by both the compliments and questions about his music.

Cadence cracked open the door just slightly, she smiled to see that the first step in letting Inverno go free was taken. Now all they need to do is to get word to the rest of the Empire.

Comments

[HB_DS2013]

For a musical genius, Inverno's innocent.

[CrackedInkWell]

6183113 Agreed, he's still a colt at this time. Still has some things to learn I suppose.