The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 10 -- Ariel Dawn

by shysage

Chapter 23, Signs

Wow... In the space of less than two days... We came abruptly back to our present without our daughter Ariel, crying buckets... Maybe twelve hours later, at Princess Celestia's demand, we went back to the Past (by squeezing the Portal rim) and amazingly found Ari, then quickly brought her back to our present. We all cried a lot together; Ari was Cel and Lu's (Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's) Foal-sitter... Then, yesterday I think, we made a whirlwind visit to the Equestria Girls world, and our Twins (sigh) and... bleacher girls (sigh more...) While there, we found out that Ariel's Twin was on the way (in the oven my Twin said), but Queen Annie's Twin had died suddenly only days before... We came back from the Equestria Girls world absolutely exhausted, and crashed at Fluttershy's Cottage. We all slept a long time...

And that amazing tune in the background never really faded(1)...

When we finally woke up the next morning, I only vaguely remember Fluttershy cooking us all a yummy dinner the night before. Sis does so well with that, and there were five of us too; Fluttershy and Shyna, and Shysage, and our daughter Ariel and I. Well, before we were spirited away to the Past again, I was learning how to cook. But that was three years ago for Shysage and I, and honestly, I don't remember much about cooking. Sis said it would come back quickly. And Shysage called it jet lag, our 24+ hours of sleep. I was so out of it, I was really glad Sis did the cooking.

That next morning, I also realized that Shysage had been up a number of times to take care of the fire. The Cottage was nice and warm, and there was a good supply of logs nearby. Well, at some point, my Stallion had also collected Fluttershy and Shyna's coats from the Library, along with his coat and my two coats (Ari got the white one) from the Canterlot Recorder's house.

So that next morning... Fluttershy cooked us all a nice breakfast. Then we hugged together some, then our family (I cried writing that), Shysage, Ari and I headed for the Canterlot Recorder's house.

We passed Dawn and Camille heading out as we arrived, so we hugged a bunch with them. Dawn mentioned the angry crowd briefly, and I don't remember what Shysage said. I had missed our amazing neighbors too. But it wasn't until Dawn asked about the mare with us... I cried a lot... Shysage explained to Dawn that we had been gone for three years (keeping it as vague as possible), and we had Ariel Dawn while we were gone. Ari's full name made Dawn cry, and Camille cried with us. I realized that Ari and Camille would probably get along very well now too. We cried and hugged with Dawn and Camille for a while. The sun was up nicely and kept us from freezing, in between small clouds coastng past.

Well, it was maybe noon when Dawn and Camille finally left and headed to Rarity's Boutique. It wasn't freezing cold, so Shysage asked about our little hill in the east meadow. That is where we headed. We were quickly on our bellies next to each other on that little hill, facing away from Ponyville. Well, I started crying first, and before long... Calming down, Shysage and I took turns talking to true friend. Ari took a turn too, which made Shysage and I cry some more. Still, it felt so good to relax back on that hill. We all soon calmed down, and just enjoyed being together. It felt wonderful. This was Shysage and my family...

I would often look longingly at the lake. I knew it was partially frozen over; any by the moonlight nights were out of the question. Neither Shysage nor I like the cold... But Ari started looking at the lake too. Shysage and I both could tell that the wheels were turning... The lake... the woods... the contour of the land... Then Ari said quietly and slowly

"...Oh... my... goodness..."

Then

"Mom, dad... Our east meadow, in the Past... It was right here, wasn't it?"

Well, I just cried. Even though it was difficult for him, Shysage explained that, when the Portal took us to the Past this last time, it moved us back in time, but left us in the exact same location. That was all Shysage could say, but we both knew it was enough.

"I was born here... I grew up here..."

Ari said that, then cried with us. It felt better to hug, so we sat up and hugged while we cried for a while.

We did calm down, but the calculating part in Ari (she got that from Shysage)...

"You both knew this is where we were, didn't you? And you couldn't say anything about it because it was future..."

Shysage thought a minute, then said quietly "If you look from here... The pond and fountain in the middle of town is where the long lake was in the Past. You flew over that lake when you learned to fl--"

While Shysage tried not to cry, I hugged Ariel, then looked into her eyes and said quietly "So much we couldn't explain... We can tell you everything now... Well, just about everything..." This made Ari cry, and we just cried with her.

We thought we had calmed down.

"And, I'm named after your neighbor too, right?"

We cried together some more. But I also realized there was just so much to tell our Ariel. At least we could do that now.

As the sun ducked behind some trees, Shysage said we should head home. This made us all cry again. The Canterlot Recorder's house really was our home now. While we cried, Shysage got us up and led us back there. Ari quickly and easily ducked off her coat, and was on her belly on the big rug in front of the fireplace. As he usually does for me, Shysage changed into a people and helped me get my coat off. He told Ari he was taking care of his princess, which made me blush.

Ari said quietly "I love my family..."

It didn't take long for Shysage to get a good fire going. Evidently, he had already been here since we came back, and coaxed some fire from left-over coals... I just hugged my daughter as we wept softly together. Shysage ended up on the other side of Ari, just like we usually did when she was young, maybe 1,400 years ago now... In a lot of ways, we were starting over where we had left off. None of us minded. In fact, it felt amazing. Off and on, we wept softly and sighed together for a while.

"Ok, I noticed the little room, and that's your room, right? Where do you want me to sleep tonight then?"

I was crying even before Ari finished her question. I love my Stallion, and I love being with him. But, right now, I didn't want to leave our Ari alone. I was trying to calm down some so I could explain this.

I think Shysage was thinking a little further ahead. Ariel was already maybe 6 or 7 pony years old, but still... "Summer, maybe you and Ariel need to... discuss..." Shysage stopped there and blushed. I guess he had trouble finding the right words. Well, I didn't know either.

"Mom, dad, thats ok. I... I think I know what I need to know about stallions..."

Ariel smiled when she explained this. I guess Shysage and I should not have been surprised. Ariel continued.

"After Annie became the Queen, she talked some about her time with the King. She was careful, but on a number of occasions, I asked Annie questions that made her blush. She always explained of course. That part, how everything works, it wasn't that hard to understand..."

Brief pause...

"And it was clear that Annie and King Thars were really in love, and the time they spent... like that... Well, Annie said it was absolutely amazing."

Ariel paused a little longer here, then almost broke down and cried...

"Dad, I watched how you treated mom... I watched how the King treated his nobody Queen Annie...

"I... I wanted that too, and it didn't take me long to realize...

"I was the Queen's maiden, and the royal Foal-sitter too. Quite a few stallions tried to, well... Most said they wanted to be my friend, but I quickly realized they had something else..."

Ariel was crying at this point and Shysage and I got up and hugged her. Still, Ariel explained.

"Mom, dad, all of those stallions were TAKERS..." Our Ari said this slowly and with some disdain. She kept going.

"I don't want that..."

"I don't want to even be like that...

"I grew up with you both, the most giving ponies I have ever known... That's what I want... Thats how I want to be... to live... I want to be a giver...

"And I will only give myself to... ...marry a giver... I want to spend the rest of my life with somepony who... gives, above all else..."

Ariel cried pretty hard, but she managed to finish her thought.

"I... I don't know... about here... but givers... they were so rare in Coptol... I can only dream..."

Shysage and I hugged our daughter, and cried with her. She would find out that givers are pretty rare here and now too... But somehow, I had found my Stallion, so... Through tears, Shysage said haltingly at one point "Ariel, keep dreaming... Life's good Dreams like that... are Hope's cousins..." We cried together for a while.

The fire needed more wood, so Shysage got up, turned into a people and took care of that. I could tell he was deep in thought, then he spoke softly...

"Ariel, between two givers, intimate time really is absolutely amazing, far more than just a pleasurable feeling...

"And when the Portal moved us from the middle of this harsh winter here, and left us together and alone at the start of the warmth of summer deep in the Past, we enjoyed ourselves a lot... And you are the result of one of those amazing times...

Brief delay, and Shysage turned back into a pony...

"I... Mom and I will find time to be together and alone, its just harder during the winter...

Shysage was clearly done, hugged me, and cried on my shoulder. I knew he wanted to give me that. I pulled Ariel into our hug, and said quietly "Honey, most nights during the winter we sleep together on this rug near the fire. We fully intend to keep our precious daughter with..." Then I couldn't talk either. But I think we answered our Ariel's question, at least for now.

For the rest of what was left of that evening, little was said. We had plenty of time to explain what our thoughtful Ariel didn't think through herself. We mostly hugged in front of the warmth of the fire, and cried softly on and off. I think Shysage is probably the only other pony who fully realized just how it felt to have our Ariel back with us. She was ours...

Well, we were soon on our bellies, together as a family, sound asleep.

---

I think I woke up last the next morning. Shysage was already working with the fire, and Ari was sitting, looking into the pantry. She was probably trying to make sense of the stuff in there. I didn't think I could. Ari asked Shysage about water and some sort of pot, then she asked me about some of the jars in the pantry. Ari made us a most amazing breakfast. She called it Oat Stew. It looked simple enough to make, but it was very good. We all had plenty to eat. I think we were hungry.

After breakfast, we decided to go for a walk. Shysage helped his mares get our coats on, then he got his on. We wandered to the east meadow, and got a drink, after Shysage managed to break a hole in the ice. It wasn't very thick, so this was pretty easy.

We wandered through town some, and spoke briefly with both Pinkie Pie and Rarity in passing. Then we headed to Fluttershy's Cottage. Fluttershy and Shyna both joined us for our walk. We headed to the Castle, and found nopony around except Spike. Spike said something about magic lessons, and so we headed down the hall, out the Castle door, and down the steps. It was actually a nice day, for the middle of winter. Few clouds obscured the sun, and there was no wind. With coats on, we were fine.

We had probably only taken ten steps away from the Castle, when Ari stopped walking and just stood there. She looked over at, well, my tree, then around and slightly down towards the center of Ponyville.

"Wait... That tree... Our trees were right there too, right?"

I would explain the significance of 'my tree' to our Ari at some point. Or, more likely, she would read through all of the other chronicles, and would learn a lot about it. But I just wept softly. Shysage said simply "Yes..."

"Mom, dad, lets go..."

Ari led us past the tree, and beyond, clearly off to the west. Of course Fluttershy and Shyna came with us. I guess Shysage knew fairly quickly what Ari had on her mind. He said quietly "Ari, you know the trip there will take about an hour and a half on hoof, and we will also need to make the return trip walking..."

Ari stopped walking, turned around and smiled. "I know dad, I just want to see if that tree is still there."

The walk was very nice and the weather cooperated. Ari and Shyna led the way, talking non-stop, now mostly in modern equestrian. Fluttershy and I walked together behind them and we talked almost non-stop too. THAT was just amazing. I had really missed my Sis... Maybe half way there, Ari and Shyna slowed and walked next to Sis and I, and we were all talking together. Shysage walked on my other side the whole time, and said little. That was ok, I felt him close. I would occasionally bump his nose with mine. I love my Stallion.

Still, I think Shysage saw where we were heading before the rest of us girls did; we were too busy talking. We were almost to the spot of the lone, huge tree before the rest of us even noticed. The four of us stopped talking at about the same time, and gasped... together... Fluttershy started crying. For a few minutes, we looked, and stared...

In the Past, flying one day, we had found a single, huge tree here. Shysage said it was a Redwood, and he had no idea how a lone redwood could spring up out of nowhere. And it was so tall... But... now... The ring of huge trees that we saw... It was the exact same large circle of huge trees that we saw at the end of our time in the future. Well, it looked just like it, anyway. And even though it was the middle of winter, somehow the blanket of ferns...

Shysage led the rest of us through an opening between two huge tree trunks, and we timidly walked towards the center of the circle of trees, as we all looked around in awe. The ferns... The grass inside the ring was still green... It must have been around noon, and the sun, though low, warmed us nicely. It again felt... Hushed quiet... Huge trees... What was this place?

Fluttershy wept softly the whole time. Her goal was to come back here, to this very spot maybe 37 years in the future... ...to Desert Spring...

I think Fluttershy, Shysage and I half expected to see the Keeper of Equestria show up again, but he never did. Still... Shysage and I both talked to true friend briefly. Thats what we often did when we visited the lone tree deep in the Past.

It was mostly just hushed quiet and Fluttershy's sniffles.

After maybe an hour restng on that small hill in the center, Shysage said we should head back. I think we were all ready, although Sis probably would rather have stayed right there until... Well, at least we knew where it was now, and we could come here again. Shysage led us carefully through the gap in the circle of trees, and we were soon walking back towards Ponyville. Looking at the lay of the land, we really didn't need any help finding our way. We had walked this way and then back often when Ari was younger. We had flown here many times too.

Little was said on our return trip. Fluttershy, Shysage nor I, we really couldn't explain that we had been to this big circle of huge trees before, but in the future (which sounds crazy I know). Our Ari had only known that lone Redwood, when she was much younger. And Shyna... Sis kept weeping softly, and I just joined her. I didn't know what else to do.

Still, I didn't think we would ever see the Equestrium again like we did the night after we found that lone, huge tree in the Past...

Near Ponyville, Fluttershy asked quietly that we all spend the night in her Cottage. She probably just wanted us close right now. I understood, and that was fine. As the sun dipped below trees and it got very cold, we made our way through Ponyville to her Cottage. Sis made us a very nice dinner, and the dessert was good too. Shysage took care of the fire, and the five of us were soon on our bellies facing the hearth. Ari and Shyna talked quietly, and I hugged my Sis as she was again weeping softly.

"Do you think we will still..." Through tears, Fluttershy said this much, then stopped. Fluttershy should not have said any more, but both Shysage and I knew exactly what she meant, so she didn't have to. I... was mush, crying with my sister. I knew Desert Spring would be worth the wait. But I still hurt for her.

Shysage answered quietly "Fluttershy, I think the Keeper can be trusted to keep his promise."

Fluttershy calmed down at this, and the five of us were soon asleep.

---

Of course, Shysage kept Fluttershy's Cottage plenty warm during the night. The last few days, it had been very cold at night, but just tolerably cool during the days, especially in direct sunlight, and with our coats on. I think we all slept well.

Fluttershy made us all a nice breakfast the next morning. Afterwards, she mentioned she and Shyna had some chores to do. After everypony hugged everypony, Shysage, Ari and I got our coats on, and headed out. The sun was up nicely, so we were comfortable. We walked slowly through town, and didn't run into anyone in particular. Ari looked around a lot, and asked me a bunch of questions, about all sorts of things. We basically talked the whole time. And I guess I made a mental note that we should try to get at least some of the chronicles nearby so Ari could read them when she wanted to.

We ended up at Princess Twilight's Castle. We walked slowly up the stairs, down the hall, and into the Library. Princess and Filia were both reading at one of the tables. They noticed us right away, got up, and used their magic to help us take our coats off. As soon as that was done, Princess said apologetically "Oh, Summer, I'm sorry we missed you yesterday. Spike said you were looking for me. I hope everything is ok..."

We bowed to our Princess, then took turns hugging her. Princess officially welcomed Ariel to Ponyville. Then I explained to Princess that we were just wandering around with our Ariel yesterday, enjoying life in Ponyville together.

After a lull in conversation, Princess explained a little more. "The girls and I were practicing our levitation magic yesterday. It is one thing to move a quill, a table, rocks and other stuff. It takes a lot more magical control to carefully move a small amount of, well, something. We were practicing that yesterday. We were scooping up small amounts of dirt and moving it around. You wouldn't think such a simple task would be so difficult, but it was a good exercise in magical control. We will do it again some day when Rarity can come."

Princess paused briefly, as if in thought, then she continued.

"You would think I knew about everything around our little town. But yesterday, Fiona noticed, well, a small cave in a wooded area close to town. Well, we --"

Shysage should have known better, but I think the wheels were quickly turning. "Princess, where was this cave?"

Princess graciously replied right away "Well, it was close to town, but I... It would probably take a little while, but I think we could find it."

Ariel was way ahead of everypony else, and by this point, she had already pulled her coat off the table, dove under it, ran down the hall, and was quickly out the Castle door.

Well, if it was the cave Shysage was thinking of, our cave, we could find it easily enough. Princess and Filia helped us get our coats back on, then they got theirs on, and we walked together through town. Past the Canterlot Recorder's house, into the east meadow, into the woods beyond, and we kept going. Still, the lay of the land was very similar, and we were soon standing in front of... our cave home in the Past...

"I... I hope this was ok. I didn't know what..." Princess said quietly.

The magic lessons from yesterday had emptied the cave mostly out. We had to actually go down now to get inside. The whole valley floor had filled in, and the lake was larger too. Still, Ariel was already inside, laying on her belly, weeping softly.

"I grew up in this cave... Queen Annie lived with us in this cave..."

I walked carefully in, laid on my belly next to Ariel, hugged her, and cried with her.

Shysage teared up too, but tried to explain. "Princess Twilight, we actually lived in this cave, deep in the Past for the first maybe two years of Ariel's life. This was our home. And when Annie came, she stayed in here too. We lived--"

Shysage stopped abruptly. "Summer look up at the roof of the cave..."

It... It was still there...

On an overnight visit here with Cel and Lu, some 1,400 years ago maybe, Shysage had carefully scratched a large heart shape on the roof of this cave. It took him about 30 minutes. Then he wrote inside the heart 'Summer + Shysage'. When he was done, he said softly "An enduring monument to my love for your mom."

It actually had endured, amazingly...

I got up quickly, climbed out of the cave, and just about tackled my Stallion. We were quickly hugging... I really love him... Still, I knew this might be awkward for everypony else, so I quickly got back up, and rejoined Ari in the cave.

Shysage had hugged me tightly; I'm sure he felt the same way I did. We both hoped our love would last, well, forever. Still, Shysage said calmly to Princess Twilight "Princess, finding this cave, and clearing it out, you all have done us an amazing favor. This cave has a special place in our family history, and to be able to visit here now..." Shysage had to stop; he was fighting back tears again.

Princess hugged him briefly, then said cheerfully "Well, I'm glad we didn't ruin anything for you. It really was a good exercise for the girls. Should we do anything else to it?"

"Well, you can clear away some more dirt from around the cave entrance. But I think that will be a constant battle, so I don't know." Shysage said hesitantly.

It was quiet for a few minutes except for Ari's sniffles. Princess mentioned to Filia they needed to get their homework done, and the two of them hugged us then headed back to the Castle.

Shysage, Ari and I... Our family spent a bunch of that day in our cave home from 1400 years ago in the Past. We talked... We remembered... We laughed... We hugged a lot... We cried a lot... We really didn't want to leave... Memories just kept flooding over us. It was like time just stood still, even though we knew the hours were racing by.

...

At one point we were crying softly together, hugging. We heard voices aproaching, then...

"Oh, my goodness! The cave!" It was Cel (well, Princess Celestia), and both she and Lu (Princess Luna) were quickly crying buckets. We made room for two more crying ponies, as Cel and Lu, crowns and all, climbed down into our cave home. Ignoring the dirt, we all laid on our bellies and cried together for a while. Cel didn't need to be reminded about the enduring monument. She quickly looked up to see if it was still there, then cried about that. And then, when we explained to Cel and Lu that we had raised Ariel in here for two years, and also added their mother Annie to our family here for the last six months of that time... Princess Twilight and Filia laid on their bellies in the grass nearby and just wept softly with us. For another hour at least, we cried and hugged (it was tight), and remembered and laughed with Equestria's Princesses...

As it started to get dark, Cel insisted that we accompany her back to the Castle. Of course, we did. We took turns climbing out, and tried to shake as much dirt off as we could. I don't think anypony really minded it though.

Cel led us through town, as we stopped briefly for those ponies that were out and about, and were very surprised to see Equestria's Princesses, and bowed quickly. Still, we were soon heading up the steps into the Castle. Down the hall, into the Library...

Cel stopped next to a table piled high with...

Ari shouted loudly "Oh, my goodness, all my notes!" Then Ari burst into tears... "How could you... I treasured all of these... And now they are here... how..."

One stack was clearly the large pile of leaf paper that we had used to record everything that happened to us while we were in the Past this last time, well up until Annie came. And how they could even last all these centuries... The other pile was clearly real paper from Coptol. Our Ari could write, after all. Shysage and I were quickly crying too. Having our notes about our time in the Past... That would make Canterlot Recording for this trip a lot easier.

Cel was quickly crying buckets with Ari. Lu tried to explain.

"The time-locked magic safe... After Ari left, we put... These were the first things we tried after the Unicorns said it was done... We never really knew if it would even work... We had found these notes cleaning out Ari's closet in the Kings palace, and used them to try it...

"Everything popped out of the safe yesterday..."

Lu cried a while, and so did Cel. Then Cel said through tears "Lu and I were up all night reading... We cried a lot... We didn't sleep much... We just couldn't... Our mother... We had forgotten so much... It's like we know her a lot better now... We remembered..."

Cel, Lu and Ari hugged tightly and cried loudly together for a while. The Foal-sitter with her foals... Queen Annie far more than a forgotten memory... Mother... We all cried...

And, as I mentioned, we recorded our time in the Past up until Annie arrived. Evidently, some time later, Ariel had picked up the record at that point, and added the details of our six months with Annie, as well as our visit to Coptol to find Annie's dad so Annie could tell him she was the Mare... Ariel added all that detail, up until we disappeared. She had helped us with our Canterlot Recording...

This record... From when we left, up until we came back to our present... It was all here... Shysage and I just cried...

...

Maybe half an hour later, Lu pulled away, and walked over to the stack of Coptol papers. Cel noticed, stood to her full height, and said somewhat sternly "Everypony, silence please." Using her magic, Lu brought over two pages, and said quietly

"Ariel, please read this..."

---

---

Author's Note:

1. Slow, understated elegance of 'The Celestial Capital - Al'Taieu'* from the 'Chains of Promethia'* expansion for Final Fantasy XI* (*c2014 by Square Enix)