Starlight and Aurora

by twilightsparkle3562

Chapter 11: I Made A Grave Mistake

Author's Note:

Chapter 11
“I Made A Grave Mistake”

Aurora Glimmer was being scowled at by her daughter as their therapy session continued. The entire truth surrounding her decision to put her drunken husband over her only daughter was about to come out. The middle aged unicorn took an enormous gulp as both Starlight and Sweetheart waited for her to speak the truth.

“Starlight,” Aurora explained. “I wanted to try and save our family from falling apart. You must believe me! I loved your father and I would do anything to help save him from whatever demons were haunting him.”

“But, he wouldn’t listen to you,” Starlight bitterly remarked. “Just as you didn’t listen to me when I needed you the most. I wanted us to have a relationship together, when I was alone.”

“Um, Starlight,” Sweetheart asked politely. “Why don’t we hear what your mother has to say first? Give her a chance to explain herself, she did the same for you.”

Starlight reluctantly fell silent. “She has a point, as much as I hate to admit it.” she thought.

“Your father, Starlight. Well, when I first met your father,” Aurora sighed as she produced a small screen that showed her as a young mare with a stallion that was dark purple and had a dark purple mane and tail, similar to Twilight Sparkle’s, except for the skunk stripe (and the fact that his mane and tail were much darker shades of purple, almost black like). “He seemed to be the most handsome stallion I had ever met. All he ever wanted was to be a magician, like my father Hoofdini. Being the daughter of a magician like him, there was no doubt in my mind that your father and I were meant to have a future together.”

The screen then showed several moments of Aurora and Starlight’s father dating, then it transitioned their wedding in Canterlot. Aurora looked like the happiest bride in all of Equestria, as Princess Celestia presided over the ceremony in the castle hallway. Even some of the upper crust nobility were in attendance. Another transition showed the newly wedded couple, as Aurora helped her husband as they perfomed together all over Equestria.

“But then,” Aurora continued as the screen showed Starlight’s father struggling with a magic act. The young stallion seemed to be almost panic stricken, as his horn refused to spark. “The pressures of wanting to please everypony began to get to him. For a period of time, he was struggling to get through even the most basic of magic acts. He couldn’t even pull a rabbit out of a hat, let alone entertain an audience! And that’s when he turned to the bottle, he claimed it helped to ease his nerves!”

Starlight continued to watch the display, unable to look away. She saw her father attempt to saw her mother in half, one of the most popular magic tricks a magician was known to perform. Then, Starlight saw her father drink what appeared to be alcoholic cider, the shaking in his hooves stopping only once he’d downed the bottle! But he seemed to become distant and unaware of the world around him, as if time had slowed to a halt before his eyes.

Seeing her father drunk made Starlight almost sick to her stomach, there was a reason she’d banned any sort of alcholic beverages in “Our Town”. Drunken ponies were much harder to keep in line, and they often had thoughts of their own.

---

Aurora was starting to tear up again as she continued to speak. “This was around the time I was pregnant with you, Starlight,” she replied as she displayed the memory that shimmered before Starlight. Immediately, Starlight took notice of the rainbows in the background. “We were at a charity performance in Rainbow Falls and your father was drunk off his saddle. I tried to get him to stop, tried to get him to give up the bottle. But he wouldn’t listen, he ensisted it was the only thing that could hepl him preform!”

Starlight forced herself to watch as her mother and father were shown to be fighting loudly over her’s father drunken antics. Then, she watched again, horified as her father performed the sawing act only this time while he was under the influence! The effects of the alcohol had caused him to miss the center of Aurora’s body and almost cut her head off! Fortunately, before it could be shown, Aurora stopped the memory.

“I’d rather not have you watch that,” Aurora replied, a look of horror crossed her eyes! “That was from a performance in Las Pegasus before your fifth birthday, Starlight. Your father was at his worse that night, drunk off his saddle even worse than before and that led to the audience noticing what was happening to him! The booing that the audience made were some of the loudest I had ever heard in my entire life, Starlight. I was ashamed to even be a part of your father’s act at that point and we fought a screaming battle afterwars like none other! And if you were going to ask why we didn’t tell you about this,” Aurora continued. “It was because, we couldn’t bear to have you exposed to such disgusting acts. You were only a filly, Starlight, your mind was fragile.”

“It didn’t matter if my mind was fragile then,” cried Starlight. “It’s always been fragile, mother! All I ever wanted was structure of support in my life! I wanted my life to be predictable, free of anything that would come and tear us apart! But, I never got it! Sunburst was the closest thing I had to that, and then a cutie mark caused his parents to send him off to magic school! And he never returned any of my letters! My whole world came crumbling down that day!”

“Nopony is supposed to have structure, Starlight. At least, not in the way you think” Sweetheart explained. “I came from a large family, Starlight, and I had to face many challenges and changes in my life. It’s what makes us who we are because that’s just how it is. And I can relate to having a relationship that ended badly, Aurora.”

“In what way is that, Sweetheart?” Aurora wondered outloud.

“When I was growing up,” Sweetheart replied, memories she’d swore she would never touch working their way back to the surface. “I was very close friends with a pony named Teddy. He was a troublemaker and always did mean things to get attention. However, he wasn’t always mean, I thought that was something my friends couldn’t understand about him. I thought they didn’t know him like I did. In reality, they were right after all, Teddy grew up and became a criminal, and I almost joined him! But, in your case, I wonder if your husband was only drinking to get attention for himself.”

“If he was trying to get attention,” Starlight said to her mother. “They why didn’t you take notice? You knew what he was doing, why didn’t you stop him or walk away and cut off contact with him?”

“Because I refused to believe that he was becoming an alcoholic,” Aurora confessed. “I was in denial about it, Starlight. I couldn’t bear the thought of having you be the daughter of an alcoholic magician. Our family would have lived in shame if you had known the whole truth! Seems like I foolishly put my family legacy ahead of the well being of my own daughter!”

“You never even told me Hoofdini was my grandfather,” Starlight replied, trying not to sound too bitter. “What else have you been hiding from me because you thought you were trying to protect me?”

“Starlight, I’m not saying it was the right thing to do, it wasn’t,” Aurora answered. “Nothing I say or do can change that, but right now all I want is a chane for us to put the pains of the past behind us. To see if we can start over now that your father isn’t a part of our lives anymore.”

Sweetheart sat up and pushed her glasses into place. Now, everything hanged on Starlight Glimmer. And from what Sweetheart had just heard, she wasn’t sure if she could truly tell Starlight to give her mother a second chance. Celestia knows if Sweetheart’s own mother had hidden such dark secrets from her, she would be peeved! Could she really tell Starlight to do something that might not be for the best?!

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Was Teddy a reference to "My Little Pony Tales"?

[twilightsparkle3562]

7604779 Yes, it was.

[zalla661]

Hmm. I have mixed feelings here. I understand both Star and her mother's point of views. Still both were stubborn, or in Starlight's case, being stubborn beyond reason. I'M TORN!!

[Catla]

OH ME POTATO MLP TALES REFRENCE