A Tale of Two Mares

by CharmingChaos

Troubled Waters

Skipping through time a bit here. Sorry, but Tambourine has to be able to talk.

Octavia gently rolled four-year-old Tambourine off of her stomach, grabbing her magazine delicately in her mouth and sliding off the bed.

Tamby played on happily, not in the least disturbed by her mother and former resting place's sudden disappearance. She hummed on, levitating her two little dolls to and fro on the bedcovers, a tiny, angelic smile plastered permanently on her face.

Octavia smiled as well, turning her back on the charming scene as she trotted into the next room to find her marefriend. She wedged herself onto the couch, wriggling into Vinyl's embrace with a little grunt of satisfaction.

Vinyl greeted her with a light pack on the forehead, blinking and yawning as she woke up. She pushed the headphones off her ears with a sleepy, lopsided grin.

"Mornin', Babe. How's Tamby doing?" She stifled another yawn, stretching her hind legs slightly.

Octavia tapped Vinyl on the nose. "It's not morning, silly, it's nearly four in the afternoon." She fake pouted, sticking out her lower lip pathetically. "And, what kind of greeting was that, just waking up and asking about Tamby without even acknowledging me?"

"Hey! I said good-morning," Vinyl protested, poking her marefriend's exposed stomach.

Octavia scowled at her, recoiling at the soft prod. "That's not what I meant, Vin'."

Vinyl sighed exaggeratedly, reaching to put her forelegs around Octavia's neck. She pulled her marefriend's muzzle down abruptly, locking the grey mare in a passionate kiss. "Better?"

Octavia smiled peaceably at her. "Much."

"Vinyl shifted slightly so they were laying side by side instead of Octavia sitting perched on her chest with a soft grunt. "SO, what brings you to this neck of the house? I mean, other than my fantastic oral skill, I mean."

"You are adorably arrogant." Octavia nuzzled her, trying vainly to smooth down a part of Vinyl's preposterously wild mane. "It's a bit of both, actually. I've been thinking we need to look into getting a bigger house."

"What's wrong with this one?"

"Nothing. It is just so... small. And dark. What are we going to do in a few months when Tamby needs her own room? She already barely fits in the crib. We need to get a place with a spare room for our filly."

"We can fix up the den as a Tamby-proof room. I don't mind having the tv in the sitting room, and besides, that couch ought to have gone to the dump months ago." Vinyl gave Octavia her best problem solved look, her trademark smug, lopsided grin reappearing where it had only moments before disappeared.

"But it's so dark and dreary down there," Octavia pointed out, finding fault in her marefriend's logic yet again. "Besides, Tamby's room needs windows. A filly can't live in a room with no natural light."

"So we paint on windows. I can make them glow with magic."

Octavia pushed her marefriend away in frustration, rolling off the sofa and landing on her hooves with a light thud. "She needs air, too, Vin'. It's just not the same-- you don't understand. We need a bigger house!"

"I don't think so, 'Tav. I've lived in this house seven years now, two before we met, and five with you, and I've never complained. I don't know what the problem is."

"But it's musty and... and icky," Octavia could tell she was whining now, but she didn't care. "And it's good for one, stay-out-all-nightish pony like you, and okay for the two of us, but it's just too small for three ponies to live in comfortably."

"It was fine until today, what caused the change?" Vinyl scowled, looking sourly at the grey mare standing next to her.

"You wouldn't understand. You don't ever understand anything!"

"You're acting like a foal now, 'Tavi. And as much as I usually think it's adorable when you're mad, would you please just calm down so we can talk about this like the reasonable ponies we are?"

"Reasonable? You're the one who's being unreasonable!" Octavia shrieked. "All I did was ask a simple question about whether we could look into a simple change of scenery and a simple bigger house so our filly will have a comfortable foalhood, and you say I'm unreasonable? What about you, for being so touchy about leaving a stinky, musty old apartment like this?!"

"I never said you were being unreasonable," Vinyl said, her voice strained but calm. "In fact, I distinctly remember calling us both the opposi--"

"Shut up!" Octavia exploded, eyes practically flaming. "Just shut up, okay? You don't know how to do anything reasonably you know, in fact, I've a good mind to..."

Tambourine slid off the bed and toddled into the living room at the sound of her two mother's shouts. Her tiny brow puckered in concern when she saw them. She tapped Octavia's back left hoof tentatively. "Mama, why do you hate Mommy right now?"

"I don't hate her, Tamby darling. I'm just... very, very angry with her, because she's not being very nice right now." Octavia kept her cool to speak to Tambourine, interrupting her rant against her partner mid-shriek.

Tambourine clambered onto the couch, nosing her way under one of Vinyl's forelegs. "Mommy, have you been being mean to Mama? Why is she so angry right now?"

"I haven't been being mean, Babykins, Mama is just upset because we disagree on something, and she refuses to see to reason!" Vinyl spoke through clenched teeth, pupils shrunk to near invisibility in her anger. Tambourine shrunk away, slinking into a corner to wait out the storm.

A tear slipped down her pale grey cheek, unnoticed by either of the shouting mares, and the tiny filly slumped further into her corner. "Mommy doesn't love Mama anymore..." She whimpered, cuddling one of her dolls to her chest. "They don't love each other at all."

"I don't know why you have to be so insensitive! All I asked was a perfectly sensible question. Which you would understand if you had feelings!"

"Oh, so I'm the one with no feelings?! How do you think you look, screaming your flank off like that!"

"I'm not the only one screaming, you know. And-- Oh my Celestia, why in Equestria do I even love you? You're so arrogant, I don't even know how I live with it."

"Just a minute ago you said it was adorable!"

"Well, I didn't mean it!"

Tambourine shuffled out of her corner again, a determined look on her chubby baby face.

"Mama?" She asked loudly.

No answer.

"Mommy?"

Vinyl continued to shout at Octavia, ignoring the plaintive voice from by her right foreleg.

Tambourine climbed slowly, unsteadily onto the cello perched in the corner. She reached the top with a huff. Then she stood up, balancing on the scroll, and began to shout over the noise.

"Mommy and Mama, I have a coo-- a que-- I have a queshion. Why don't you love each other anymore?"

Both mares stopped abruptly, shocked out of their anger, staring at the tiny creature perched on the cello, eyes squeezed shut in concentration, her short, filly horn glowing blue with the voice magnification spell.

"Sweetie, we still love each other," they said in unison, watching worriedly as their filly teetered on her precarious perch.

"Then why are you so angry? You aren't acting very loving." Tambourine jumped off the cello, landing with a soft thud on Vinyl's back.

Octavia sighed, looking at the floor. "I don't know, darling. I guess we needed a little reminder."

"Yeah, we're sorry to have scared you, Tamby, sweet. We definitely still love each other." Vinyl turned her head to kiss the filly's curly mane.

"Aren't you going to say sorry to Mama?" Tambourine asked innocently. "Miss SilverLight says you should always say sorry when you make somepony sad or mad."

"Who's Miss SilverLight?" Vinyl asked earnestly.

"She's my teacher at magic kindergarten. She says that is you make somepony sad, it's like giving their heart an owie. And an ap-- an apple-gee is like a bandaid for your heart."

"She seems pretty smart. I think she's right about that, Tamby." Vinyl turned to her partner with a hopeful look. "I'm sorry, Octy. I didn't mean for this to happen at all. But just give it time, okay? I'm not quite ready to move yet, and..."

Octavia nuzzled her mane. "It's okay, Vinyl. We can wait a while for now, I guess. And I'm sorry, too."

"Does that mean you love each other again?" Tambourine asked hopefully.

"We never stopped loving each other, Honey," Vinyl explained, her eyes soft. "We just... forgot for a minute. And you were very brave to come and remind us."

Tambourine looked pleased. She leaned across the gap between her two mothers' backs, wrapping her forehooves around Octavia's neck. "I love you, Mama. I love you, Mommy."

"We love you too, Sweetie." Octavia smiled.

"Don't ever forget that, Tamby," Vinyl said solemnly, enveloping her marefriend and her daughter in a hug.

Tambourine nodded, her face a mask of seriousness. "I won't Mommy. I promise."

Comments

[Cheer]

d'awww.

[Fallen Cerium]

SO CUTE <3

[ICCUWAUSIMTOI]

The real question is if the two of them will have another foal.

I would say it is much closer than they think, judging by behavior alone.

[NotsoAwesme]

bgfjhDIUAHIGAHIHGIUGNHomagerdsomanyfeels
HNNNNNGGGGGGGHHHHHHH *dead*

[RainbowShy1241]

I think it was very cute to make little Tamby struggle with her vocablary, juging by her age, it makes sence. Hope there won't be many more skips though.

[CharmingChaos]

1096036 Nope. Tambourine should age normally now.
1095852 maybe eventually. but I have a couple other plans up my sleeve first.

[Journeyman]

"Mama, why do you hate Mommy right now?"

weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/can-i-be-your-lawyer-of-course-you-can-240x180.jpg

[Nima55]

I like the touch of calling them different variations of mom. A tip of the hat to you.

[CharmingChaos]

1183298 there's really no other way, unless you expected Vinyl or 'Tav to be daddy. I don't believe in kids calling their parents by their first names, and my friend, who has two mothers, calls one Mom and one Madre (she's spanish), so I figured it was logical.

[ATerif]

Right in the feels!!!

[Jay Cruiz]

HHHHHHNNNNNNGGGGGGG!1!!!!!!!! My hearts done and sploaded from the cuteness!

[masterbrony13]

SO CUTE I COULD CRY AND I THINK I JUST MIGHT

[Morphile]

1270441>>1265016>>1234682>>1110832>>1095854
BABALITY!!!

[Night Runner 01]

Again! My feels! Their gone! *Desperately tries to hold my fragile feels together* I knew reading Past Sins was a bad Idea. It made my feels so fragile.

[mrmayortheiv]

I'm sorry, but throughout this fic Octavia's been a real [expletive] seriously, Vinyl has been fairly reasonable this whole time with very nearly everything, but Tavi flies off the handle everytime anything happens, always immediately forgiven by her partner, even though the same courtesy is never returned whenever Vinyl does something wrong.

Not to mention the fact that this Vinyl is pretty mellow compared to other Vinyls I've read on this site, and Tavi still blows up every third word.

[danabler42]

1095854 *sigh* hang on.....

~ *opens console*
PRID NotsoAwesme
disable
enable
kill
resurrect
set_ally_player_1
~ *exits console*

There ya go, now don't go getting diabeetus again, dammit!

[CharmingChaos]

1303583 Tavi likes to 'splode. I don't know why. But, between you and me, she's turned into a bit of a brat.

[Zombie_God]

Hnnngggg Daaaaawwwww So sweet. I really like the Story so far.

[Admiral Hoofsome]

okay.... I admit it... that was unnaturally adorable.

[Lucky424]

media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx8mp6BrB81qdn58a.jpg

[OldPink1]

Good god that was adorable

[Bakmah Genesis]

The. Feels.