Brushed Away 3: Hearts Entwined

by TheVClaw

Chapter Eighteen: The Blade's Edge

The skies were quickly blanketed in shades of grey, and it seemed as though a looming rainstorm was eminent. Despite the risk of a stray lightning bolt coming out to strike at any winged creature that flew too close to the cloud-line, Blaze and Blane were zooming low through the Equestrian countryside as fast as they possibly could. From the ground, most ponies would’ve assumed that the two gryphons were just having a heated race before the scheduled rainstorm came. However, to any pegasus ponies hovering in the skies, just a single glance at their faces would’ve shown they were flying for fear instead of sport.

Neither of them could say they knew Fluttershy that well, aside from knowing she was obviously Blade’s latest piece of eye candy. Fortunately though, both of them happened to know where her cottage was, which was where they were headed. As the darkening skies became a darker shade of grey with each passing second, time was of the essence for the two to reach her house before anyone else could.

When the two soared to a lower altitude, and their eyes widened in shock at seeing they weren’t going to reach the cottage first. Their Mother was already storming up the walkway with her feathers ruffled out, and she didn’t look happy at all. Honestly, given the fact that Angela stopped by the castle first to see if she packed her belt, it was a fairly huge shock that the pregnant gryphoness got here before Blade’s brothers could with a head start.

“Oh crap!” shouted Blaze. He pulled his legs in tighter to his body, hoping to reach the house even faster by lessening any wind resistance. Blane did the same, but his gargantuan size made the action fairly pointless as he saw his brother shoot ahead of him like a bullet.

Both of them were only a few feet above the grassy fields, but it didn’t seem like they were going to beat Angela to the house. In fact, by the time Blaze and Blane finally landed and made fairly impressive skidmarks in front of Fluttershy’s cottage, their Mom was already banging on the door furiously. They tried to run towards the pegasus’ house, but both of them stopped before they could get within their Mother’s reach to smack either of them. Nevertheless, the two could clearly hear what sounded to be music from Talon Ripper’s third album playing from inside the cottage loudly.

“BLADE CLAWSTON!” screamed the gryphoness with tone and volume that made any of Fluttershy’s pets outside quickly scatter like Lord Tirek was back. “YOU OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!”

A few seconds passed, but the music still played like nothing was said. In fact, Blade’s vocals from the song came out in what sounded like a response to Angela’s yelling. “You shut your mouth, before I EAT! YOUR! FAAAACCCCCCEEE!!!”

“BLAAAADE!!!”

Alas, it was clear that Angela’s own shrieking wasn’t going to overpower her son’s vocals. So, after letting out a low and venomous growl that made Blaze and Blane reel back in fear, the gryphoness barreled her fist through the door in one punch like it was made of tissue paper. She then stormed into the cottage, which was darkened with all the curtains closed. Fortunately, there seemed to be enough candles burning along the floor for the pregnant gryphoness to find the record player. As soon as she lifted the needle so the record could stop blaring ‘Your Face Is My Dinner,’ she heard Blade shout out from the other room, “Oi! Who turned off the music?!”

“YOUR MOTHER!” yelled Angela before storming to the source of Blade’s voice. She went into the dining room with a murderous look in her eyes, which only intensified when she saw what Blade and Fluttershy were doing.

The dining table was completely cleared off, besides Fluttershy who was lying on her stomach on top of it. Of course, as soon as Angela came in, the mare gasped at the sight of her and covered herself up with a tablecloth. Meanwhile, Blade had an equally shocked look on his own blushed face while his claws were up in innocence. Unfortunately, the candlelight in the darkened room showed that both his claws were glistening with foal oil.

Blaze and Blane ran into the dining room too, and both of them stopped with surprised looks when they saw the position their brother was in. Blaze instantly tried not to laugh at the sight. “Dude, talk about Deja Vu.”

“I know, right?” added Blane with a cheeky smirk back at him. “It’s just like what happened with Mom’s friend before that dinner party--”

“SHUT UP!!!” screamed Angela back at both of them. Blaze and Blane immediately cowered back from her in an attempt to avoid her wrath. “And why are you guys here?!”

“What? We can’t make sure our brother doesn’t get hurt by you?!”

“Wait, Mum!” shouted Blade as he tried to grab her attention. “Whatever you’re thinkin’, this is not what it looks like!”

“Oh, really?” asked the gryphoness with a wide-eyed stare on her son while her head tilted sideways. “So you’re NOT rubbing down a girl in oil on a dining room table again?!”

Fluttershy winced in mortified silence as she shriveled up tighter inside her cloth. Upon seeing the mare’s reaction, Blade turned angry while pointing a talon towards his Mother “OI! Don’t you DARE be comparin’ that to this! I was just givin’ her a massage!”

Even though he didn't want to take their Mom's side, Blaze couldn’t help saying from the doorway, “That excuse didn’t work last time, dude! Remember?”

Blane made a small shrug while making a leveling motion with his claw. “Well, yeah, but technically he was already banging Miss Featherfield that time.”

Angela’s glare shot back at the two while growling through her clenched beak. But before she could say anything to either of them, her ear tufts twitched when she heard some light sniffles behind her.

Due to the obvious embarrassment and shock of the situation, it took everything within Fluttershy to not turn into a sobbing wreck. With her body crawled in a fetal position while sitting on top of her table, the pegasus had her eyes clenched as she spoke in a frightened whimper. “M-Missus Clawston, p-please… just g-get out of my house…”

Angela’s eyes widened in instant regret at seeing how upset the mare looked. “Oh no,” muttered the gryphoness while wide-eyed. She tried to step towards her to say apologetically, “Fluttershy, I swear, I didn’t mean to--”

“G-Get out…

“I was just making su--”

“I SAID GET OUT!!!”

Fluttershy broke out in tears after that outburst, but Angela wasn’t able to say anything before Blade pushed her out of the room. Even though the skinny gryphon wasn’t violent in any way while getting his pregnant Mother out of the house, it was clear that he was beyond pissed when she and his other brothers were back outside. Blade paused momentarily to stare at the now broken door before his ear tufts twitched, overhearing Fluttershy’s crying inside. When he turned back to Angela, his glare was enough to make the gryphoness not even fathom saying anything audible.

“Mum…” Blade’s tone was especially bitter as his eyes narrowed on Angela. “What the buck were you thinking?”

Angela was legitimately afraid of what her son was going to do if she said the wrong words at that moment. Even Blaze and Blane were staring at the two cautiously in case another Lyle/Jonas incident occurred between them. Trembling a little, Angela’s beak opened shakily before saying, “I-I-I… I thought you and Fluttershy were…”

Blade’s expression wasn’t softening in the slightest, even at seeing how remorseful his Mom sounded. Blaze decided to speak up in her defense. “Come on, dude! You have to admit that it looked pretty damn suspect!”

Blade yelled intensely towards his brother, “YOU stay out of this!”

“Whoa, whoa!” shouted Blane with a raised claw so Blade could pause his ranting. “Don’t bring this out on US, dude! You were the one who decided to give a girl a private massage in her home. That’s like, one of your top five hook-up moves!”

Blade groaned with his claw in his face, not noticing that Angela calmed herself down enough to ask properly, “Blade… Can you at least explain why you were giving Fluttershy a private massage?”

After sighing and putting his claw down, Blade rolled his eyes and answered, “Jeeze, Mum, it was her idea! She saw how tense I was lookin’ since Manheattan, and offered to give me a massage to help calm my nerves.”

“Wait,” asked Blaze confusedly, “she wanted to give you a massage?”

Blane looked just as puzzled and said, “So, why did you go to her house for that? There’s a friggin spa in town!”

Blade was quick to retort with, “Yeah, and she told me how a lot of their products use walnut oil! I’d rather not go to the bloody hospital because of my allergies!”

Angela shrugged in understanding of that point. “Okay, that makes sense,” she admitted before her tone turned insistent again, “but that doesn’t change the fact that YOU were massaging her instead of the other way around!”

“Well, she… she…” Blade seemed a little uneasy as his words trailed off, and he turned around to peek inside the hole in the door that Angela made. After making sure that Fluttershy was hopefully outside hearing distance, Blade turned back to the others and peered in to whisper, “She really wasn’t that good at it.”

Blane scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on! Remember how bad those girls at Yakyakistan were at foreplay? You can’t tell us Fluttershy was worse than that!”

Due to Blane’s blunt tone and volume, Blade instantly tried to shush him so Fluttershy wouldn’t overhear. He then groaned and replied, “I just mean that hooves as a whole aren’t exactly good at getting the knots in my back! After I explained that to her, I offered to show her that claws are better at giving massages.”

Blaze nodded his head with a cocky smile. “Nice~”

“Not like THAT, you bloody goon!” By now, it was clear that Blade was getting fed up with how his family was treating his relationship with Fluttershy. So, after a deep breath, he kept his annoyed stare on all three gryphons as he tried to state the facts. “Alright, how many times do I have to explain that I am NOT interested in Fluttershy like that?! She is my FRIEND! F, R, E, N, D!!! I mean, is it really that bucking hard to think that maybe, just MAYBE I can be friends with a girl without tryin’ to shag her?!”

Despite how sincere his point may have sounded, the only response that Blade received were three equally flat stares pointed right back at him. After a few seconds of silence, which could’ve easily been replaced with a unified “Yes” to signify their answer, Blade growled angrily and shouted in addition, “Well I’m NOT!!”

“Alright,” began Angela with a huff that sounded like she’d rather agree with her son than try to argue and escalate things any further. “I understand that you’re upset, and I’m sorry for making an unfair assumption about you and your friend.”

After that, her professional tone soured as she added, “But! Considering how many times you’ve been with women who either hurt you, or the other way around due to your actions, I didn’t want to take any chances regarding you and one of the ponies involved with Troy's wedding ceremony when the wedding is in three days!”

“Wait, WHAT?!” Blade was completely befuddled as he tried to comprehend what Angela meant by that. “What are you tryin’ to say?!”

”I’m saying that ever since you hit puberty, there have been multiple instances where you did something with a girl which ended up ruining things for others! And I didn’t want that to happen with one of the mares helping with your brother's wedding!”

Blade blinked a couple times with a gaped beak, seemingly fathoming why his own Mother would tell him such a thing. While their brother was silent, Blane decided to speak up first. “Well, uhh… she’s not completely wrong, Blade.”

“Yeah,” added Blaze in a hesitant tone. “And we’re not just talking about that dinner party thing either. You remember when we had to switch schools because you almost knocked up our history teacher?”

“Oh, don’t bring THAT up!” griped Blade with an angered pout pointed at his brother. “She came onto ME!”

“Yeah,” replied Blane, “but you came into her.”

“NOT APPROPRIATE!!!” After that enraged roar, Angela took a breath and continued back towards Blade by adding, “But… I feel like I should also mention the interactions you had with the mail-lady, the butcher’s sister, all those groupies who tried to claim maternity suits on you…” With each example she listed off, Blade’s Mom was growing angrier by the second until taking a breath. “... and do I need to bring up what happened with the school nurse?”

Blade groaned as his glare intensified on his Mom. However, both of them were interrupted when they heard Blaze and Blane blurt out at the same time, “You slept with her too?!”

Angela whipped her head back at her other two sons with a dropped jaw. Frozen in embarrassment at what they just said, Blaze quickly pointed a claw back at Blade. “He rubbed Fluttershy in baby oil! Yell at him!”

“YOU KNOW WHAT?!”

They all flinched before turning back to Blade, who was now looking absolutely furious at all three of them. “First off, it shouldn't be any of your damn businesses what I do with who! And just because I don't do conventional romance shouldn't make me some untrustworthy pervert! And secondly, for one of the first times in my life, I actually made friends with someone who gets me as an artist! Not a sex symbol, not an easy paycheck, and not someone to help with their own career! I mean someone who actually likes me for ME! But instead of bein’ happy for me, like I expect family to do, you all just assume that I’m humping another hussy I found backstage! REAL bloody classy!”

Blaze and Blane’s ears slumped low in guilt, seeing that their attempts to keep Angela from going physical just ended with their brother mad at all three of them. Angela looked especially shameful with her head hung low, looking like she was about to cry.

As Blade reopened the door to Fluttershys cottage to go back inside, he stopped to look back at his Mom and say, “Oh, and nice job of making my friend cry. I hope you’re happy.”

SLAM!!!

A long, painful bout of silence passed after the door closed, and none of them tried to overhear what was going on inside anymore. Instead, Angela was the first to walk away slowly, staring only at her claws as she made a couple heavy sniffs to hold back the tears. Blaze and Blane were quick to walk along both sides of her with their wings over her back. “It’s alright,” said Blaze in as calming of a tone as he could muster. “He just needs to calm down, alright?”

Blane nodded while helping walk their Mother. “Yeah. At least you didn’t hit him with the curling iron like that one time--”

A hard smack from Blaze shut the larger gryphon up. “Don’t remind her of that!”

---

If the Equestrian dictionary featured pictures of particular terms to give emphasis to their meanings, then the dinner that was held at Canvas and Troy’s home that night would’ve fit perfectly for the entry of the word ‘Awkward.’ While it was nothing short of a miracle that Blade agreed to show up for dinner, but it almost felt like a mistake due to the mood it brought to such a nice meal.

Most of the dinner was silent, despite the fact that Canvas worked hard to make panko-fried porkchops to go along the rice and the curry recipe he got from Zecora. Unfortunately, the reason for the lack of conversation was eminent with who was seated across from one another. Blade and Lyle sat next to each other on one side of the dining table, while their uncomfortable-looking parents sat directly across from them. Neither of the younger gryphons even looked up at their parents, and just focused on their food like there was going to be a hidden message somewhere on their plates.

Blaze and Blane wanted to say something to lighten the mood, but both of them knew that their brother was just as mad at them as he was at their Mother. Since Troy and Canvas were seated across from both heads of the table, they both felt separated like islands within a vast sea of bitterness and sour looks. In fact, the only happy face seemed to be Tenor, who was gnawing on his fried pork while beside Angela’s chair like nothing was wrong.

About five minutes of eating passed since dinner started, with the only “conversation” being a couple compliments to Canvas’ cooking. Other than that, most of the table refrained from saying much due to the tension that could be cut with a knife. So because of that, the sound of Jonas’ voice was kinda jarring as he asked towards Lyle, “Uhhh… can you pass the soy sauce please?”

Even though the bottle was right next to Lyle, the young gryphon kept eating like he was deaf to his Father’s question. Jonas’ beak clenched in briefly in anger, but he was able to calm himself down after a small huff and repeated himself. “Lyle, please? Can you pass me the soy sauce?”

Lyle let out a low and bitter growl, but his only response was nudging Blade’s side with a foreleg. Blade sighed before reaching for the bottle and handing it over to their Dad. Troy and Canvas both cringed individually.

Despite having to keep himself from going off on Lyle for his behavior, Jonas still muttered a brief “Thank you” when he took the bottle. Angela, who was picking at her porkchop with a fork, hesitated for a moment before deciding to ask, “Umm, Blade? Can you pass me a napkin?”

The rack of napkins were right in the middle of the table, with Blade being one of the closest to them. After a couple seconds of silence, Blade returned the gesture his brother gave him by nudging Lyle to do it.But before Lyle could get the napkins for their Mom, Troy stopped him by yelling, “Okay, this has to stop!”

Lyle scoffed and slid the rack towards Angela. “What? I gave her the napkins!”

“She asked Blade to do it!”

“Oh, so what?” asked Blade towards Troy, “I’m the designated napkin tosser now? I didn't think I was trusted with anything with the risk of molesting it.”

Troy had to grip his own head-feathers to keep from going ballistic. “For crying out loud, you’re acting like a damn hatchling right now!”

“Oh really?” Even though he was directing his words towards Troy, Blade still peered right as his Mom and said, “I guess that’s better than acting like someone who can’t be left alone with a girl.”

Angela winced while looking down at her lap. Blane had enough and said, “Dude, stop treating Mom like that! I get you're mad, but she doesn’t deserve it!”

“Yeah,” responded Blade with a furious turn of his attention to Blane, “and Fluttershy didn’t deserve to have her door broken down so she could be treated like a WHORE!”

“Blade, PLEASE!” cried out Angela on the brink of tears, “I said I was sorry!"

All Blade did in response was make a rude “Pssh” while looking away from her.

“OKAY, THAT’S IT!” roared Jonas while glaring at both Blade and Lyle. “I am getting SICK of this behavior from both of you! Your Mother and I are BOTH aware we screwed up, but that doesn’t mean you two have to act like little pricks about it!”

That one word set Lyle off as he lifted himself from his chair. “Oh, you want to talk about a LITTLE PRICK?!”

The table erupted in yelling instantaneously. While Blade and Lyle both bickered at their parents, the remaining Gryphons tried their best to get between them with words of their own. Tenor whimpered fearfully and ran from the dining room in a panic. However, through all the commotion, nobody seemed to notice Canvas running towards the chest by the front door. Even though it was meant to hold Tenor’s toys and leash for easy access, one particular item was pulled out which the stallion really didn’t want to use. Regardless, Canvas held a bright green airhorn in his hoof and blared it loud.

FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Everyone stopped in an instant and covered their ears while wincing. After a five-second blast from the horn, Canvas tossed it aside and pointed at everyone furiously. “Everyone just SHUT UP! I know tensions are high right now, but I am NOT going to tolerate this under my own roof!”

Canvas sat back down in his chair while everyone stared at him in surprised worry. After taking a deep breath, Canvas looked over at Lyle and began to speak in a held-back but still firm tone of voice. “Lyle, I get why you’re mad at your Dad, okay? What you went through was really bad, and I can’t even begin to imagine how painful it was. But are you really going to act this way about something that was clearly an accident?! Like seriously, it wasn’t like he did it on purpose!”

Blaze looked between the two of them and said, “I still don’t know what Dad did.”

“Blaze,” said Canvas in a stern voice at the muscled gryphon, “please don’t say anything right now.” The stallion turned back to Lyle and continued. “Lyle, look at me. What if it was me who accidentally gave you those pills? Or Troy? Would you seriously be acting like this right now if it was one of us?”

Lyle paused briefly and looked down at his table before shrugging uncomfortably. “I… I don’t know…”

“Then why are you treating your Dad like that?”

That statement was enough to make Lyle look at the pony with a surprised and confused look. Meanwhile, Jonas glanced at Canvas with an expression that seemed both shocked and slightly touched by that sentiment. While Lyle looked back down at his claws in thought, Canvas added bluntly, “I want you to think that over while I’m talking to Blade.”

Canvas then took another breath as he turned his attention to the skinny gryphon. Blade had his forelegs crossed as he sat silently with his pouted beak pointed at his half-finished meal. “Blade,” he began firmly, “I heard about what happened, and I can understand why you’re upset. Technically speaking, Angela was in the wrong for how she reacted.”

Angela sunk her head lower with a shameful pout on her beak. “But!” continued Canvas as he kept his eyes glued on Blade. “The only reason she acted like that was because she was worried for the sake of the wedding! It wasn’t for selfish reasons! She just wanted to make sure nothing was happening which could affect the wedding! And right now, both you AND Lyle are making things worse than she did!”

Blade and Lyle both turned to stare at their future brother-in-law in shock. However, any retorts either of them could’ve said were quickly forgotten when they saw how the pony was looking. Canvas was still clearly upset at them, but the tears that were welling in his eyes were more evident than anything else. The stallion kept himself from sniffling too hard, but he still couldn’t keep a couple stray tears from escaping as he spoke in a hoarse tone.

“This… this is the first time in a long time that I… I actually have something like a family in my life. And I don’t want to lose the chance of having that a second time when it’s so close. Especially because of something like this.”

Lyle and Blade slumped in their seats in guilt, not needing to say anything to show they clearly felt bad. Troy got out of his seat to to go Canvas’ side of the table, not wanting him to be by himself. After a long bout of silence, Angela was the first to speak in a sincere tone towards her son. “Blade… you have to believe me on this. I am so sorry I didn’t trust you. And I promise I’ll do everything I can to make things better for you and Fluttershy.”

Blade nodded guiltily before finally giving his Mom some needed eye contact. “A-alright,” he said faintly. “Th… thank you.”

Lyle was the next to say something as he looked over at Jonas. “Ummm… I’m sorry, Dad.”

“No, it’s fine.” said Jonas with a sigh. “Believe me, I’m not mad at you. Just as long as you’re still not mad at me.”

Lyle may have not had a smile on his beak, but he was still able to nod to his Father sincerely in response. Meanwhile, Canvas wiped his eyes dry with a napkin while smiling shakily. “Th-thanks guys,” said the stallion in a cracked voice while Troy hugged him with a wing. “That’s all I needed to hear.”

Lyle and Blade nodded softly, and Blade was the first to say for both of them. “Hey, we’re sorry, mate. We didn’t mean to mess up dinner.”

“It’s alright,” said the stallion before Troy let him go. While his fiancè went back to his seat, Canvas sighed with a more relaxed smile and a shake of his head. “I’m just glad that--”

“HEY!!!”

At hearing Troy’s outburst, everyone looked over to see the gryphon try to rush over to his chair. Unfortunately, Tenor took advantage of the tender moment at the table to snag Troy’s porkchop while nobody was looking. As the Saint Bernard ran out of the dining room with his prize, Troy chased after him and yelled, “NO! Bad dog! BAD!!!”

Comments

[Syroc]

Y'know, even with this chapter... I still ship fluttershyxblade. Because metal fluttershy is just too perfect.

[Grekoy]

...buck this is a great chapter! A balance of emit feels for both parents and children, and comedic moment from Tenor.

[SageBrony07]

That was awesome. Go tenor. That was great at the end. Also wow. I never expected Blade to yell at a pregnant woman like that.

[Curtis LeMay]

his ear tufts twitched

i.imgur.com/jKT0Us7.jpg?fb

[Ebony Gryphon]

You know... I can't believe I'm the only guy whose gonna say it, but Blade Clawston, may I offer offer a cheerful, hearty, and heartfelt go fuck yourself you horn dog asshole

Honestly, all the shit he's pulled, and now he's has the unmitigated gall to get his tail in a twist over his families reaction? Also can I make mention of the fact that attempting to rail an Element is the political equivalent of a rousing game of pinata cheerfully using a sack of live and primed landmines in lieu of say the paper mache effigy of a donkey or donald trumps head?

Warning, do not read unless you are of proper age or have lied enough that it puts me in the legal clear
Ohh... this irritates me. I genuinely hope that whats his face beak banged Blade's ragged scrawny worthless self till he vomited....

Why is it the only gryphon that hasn't managed to bring my piss to a bloody boil is the one we've had three stories worth of encounter with, thus giving me ample opportunity to trigglypuff tantrum internally, and no, the baby doesn't count due to the fact it hasn't been around yet to do so.

7462317
I did. Because as has been established as per his previous actions, Blade is a cunt

[SageBrony07]

7466086 granted all three of the triplets desire that remark, but Angela still crossed a line. She should have talked to him alone, not start accusing him in front of Fluttershy. When that happens it hurts innocent parties.

[Ebony Gryphon]

7462456
Imgur don't work. use imgbox

[Curtis LeMay]

7466616
Imgur works fine, it just blocks fimfiction referrers. Open in new tab, select the url and press enter. Or highlight the url here, copy and past in a new tab.

[Truthseeker]

In fact, the only happy face seemed to be Tenor, who was gnawing on his fried pork while beside Angela’s chair like nothing was wrong.

I REALLY hope that pork chop was the boneless kind because pork bones splinter and can kill a dog.

[PhatPickles]

7467091 I love your priorities.

[Omegathyst]

Good for Fluttershy for asserting herself, I'm impressed 👀