Lost Muse

by David Silver

53 - We Have No Words

Libel fussed at Color, straightening his collar with her wingtips as she mouthed his mane into just the right tilt, at least according to her. "You know how to greet her?"

"Hello?" he ventured with a little smile. "We've met before."

"She is Miss Word. She will remain Miss Word unless she specifically gives you leave to call her something else." Libel took a slow breath. "I will call her mother, Mom if I'm feeling especially generous. You are not to refer to her as that unless she says otherwise. Can I get a promise on that?"

"Yes yes." He waved away an incoming hoof, warding Libel's next attempt to fuss with his clothing. "Miss Word, got it. Let's go. I think the gate guard's wondering what we're doing."

They were a short distance from the entrance to Miss Word's manor. The gate guardian stood there stoically, well within range of seeing and perhaps hearing them, but not reacting overtly to their presence.

"This is an interesting moment in a long and tiring day, I doubt he's upset." She wove around Color and started for a gate, a professional smile suddenly on her face. "Mister Keeper, it's been too long."

"Miss word." He tipped his head towards Libel. "Your mother's in the first sitting room. She's expecting you."

"Very good." She didn't ask to be let in, simply waiting for the door to swing inwards before she advanced past him. "This is my guest, Mister Splash."

"How do you do?" Color smiled at the gatekeeper before trotting past him to keep up with Libel. "That isn't the same one I got past the other time I went to visit."

"Mother has four gate keeps. Keeper, Watcher, Guard, and, mmm, what was her name... Hen, that's right, Hen. She moves them around where she's going to be, and they take shifts." Libel walked up to the front door and reached out to press down with a hoof on some unseen button. The door slid open smoothly. "Mother thinks putting your mouth on a knob is dirty business."

Color smiled a little. "As a unicorn, I find myself agreeing more often than not." He nudged the door a little wider with a glowing horn. "It's never polite to bring that up around, uh... not unicorns."

Libel hiked a brow at that. "Feel free to. Mother would love a sympathetic ear, I imagine. Just watch your phrasing. She hates unicorns with superiority complexes."

"Right..." He stepped inside with Libel, glancing around. "Where's the sitting room?"

"I thought you had snuck in?"

"That was a different manor!" He huffed softly and turned in place. "And it wasn't on the first floor. He said the first one, right?"

"He did, this way." She slipped past him and started a purposeful stride, not quite trotting. "It's not far."

They made their way through the building that seemed empty. It was too large with too few ponies in it. They passed a maid on the way. The mare's ears pricked up. "Little Libely! And is... that can't be." She moved towards them with a bright smile. "Tell me it isn't..."

Color tilted his head at the mare that was looking at him intently. "I'm Color Splash, nice to me--"

"Little Splash!" She squeaked. "It is you! I remember when you were only this tall." She lifted a hoof not that high. "The young miss here would give you no end of trouble."

Color looked distant a moment before it clicked and he began echoing the smile. "Miss Pot!"

"Yes, that's me. It's so lovely to see you again. Why are you..." Her eyes slid to Libel. "No..."

"May I present, my suitor, Color Splash." Libel gestured to Color with an extended wing.

"No!" She clopped a hoof, though her smile only widened. "Magnificent! Wonderful... I had secretly hoped against hope maybe it would be true some day..." She suddenly cleared her throat. "I should get back to work. Miss Word does not pay me to gossip. Congratulations, both of you."

Libel nodded towards the maid but let her pass without further ado. "I didn't know she remembered you."

"I didn't know I remembered her. I feel bad she had to be the first to point it out." He tilted his head. "Remember when she caught me climbing the side of your house?"

Libel started to color rapidly. "Do not bring that time up around mother, thank you." She cleared her throat softly. "Especially considering it was my idea that put you on the wall, desperately clinging." She barely restrained a little chuckle, resuming her walk.

She stopped before a set of double doors and took a slow breath. "Alright, you wait right here until I call you."

"Or... we just walk in?"

"Color... no, please... please just this time listen? Please..." She pressed a concealed button, causing the door to slide open. "Mother, I'm home."

"Libelous." Her mother looked up from a book she had been reading. "It is good to see you, and quite a surprise."

Libel doubted that, seeing as they had organized the thing long before it happened. "A pleasant one, I do hope. Mother, I would like to introduce you to a pony that I feel would be a quality consideration for the family."

"Oh? There are times I wonder if even you wish to be a part, but now you bring another?" She set the book she had been reading down, sitting up, eyes locked on Libel. "What qualities would you say they might bring to our esteemed household?"

Libel gestured back through the door she had entered through. "A well-established artist, they have two pieces on proud display in Canterlot Castle, with a third in production." She leaned forward a little. "Prestigiously known, their work is displayed in several fine galleries, including the Redwood."

"Redwood, hmm..." Miss Word stroked her chin softly. "And two, you say? How fine... but what of his breeding? We are an ancient family, and you are aware of this." She brought down her hoof in a firm clop on the desk. "I trust you do not seek to muddy that line."

"N-no, of course not, Mother." She flipped her ears back with a cringe. "He's a lovely pony, a unicorn--"

"--And that's good enough? So he's a unicorn. I've met plenty of unicorns that wouldn't be suited to breed with the family dog, let alone my daughter." She snorted softly. "Tell me of their parentage."

She cleared her throat, trying to fight the lump forming in it. "He is the son of two hard working parents." She had no illustrious genealogy to offer. "Merrily wedded, he is their only child."

"I understand that..." She didn't pry into it, a thing that surprised Libel. "And these two only foals would come together to make something?" Her hoof suddenly clopped down. "What's this I hear that you are no longer the lead editor? Do you have any idea how long I worked to ensure you could begin down that path?"

Libel's ears jerked up, tongue tied with the abrupt topic shaft. "Hu--"

"--Is that the expression you had? That wouldn't surprise me. What were you thinking? Libelous Word, I expected be--" She cut off her words abruptly. Color was peeking in around the corner of the door. "Little Splash... Go away. I have a daughter to discipline."

Libel's color began to drain, spinning around to see him peeking. "Go away!" she hissed in echo, fur standing on edge.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." He took a step forward, his legs shaking a little. "Ma'am..."

"You really are a stubborn little colt, Little Splash... This is a serious affair, not for innocents to hear. Go off; have the maid make you something sweet."

Color clenched his teeth, struggling against the patronizing kindness. "Miss Word, your daughter is taking the first real step to bringing honor to your family."

Miss Word's eyes widened slightly, her pupils contracting. "What? You... What would you know of the honor we carry? What would... you..." She suddenly stood up, the chair sliding back behind her roughly, almost falling over. "How dare you! You're not too old to bend over a mare's knee and paddle red."

"Mother!" Libel's hooves wavered as if she wasn't sure if she should advance or retreat. "Please..."

Miss Word took a soft breath. "You are correct, this is unseemly behavior... Color Splash." Her brows fell as one. "I give you a chance to explain. It had best be good. How does Young Word's action bring something besides dishonor on us. Seriously, an unemployed lady of the house? Unforgivable."

"You weren't employed." Color's horn glowed, grabbing a book off the shelf behind Miss Word and flopping it open on the desk in front of her. "You wrote this yourself, without anyone that could be confused with an employer. You turned down the chance to work in the castle."

"I would have been an archivist," spat out the older mare, scowling at Color. "That is no work for a mistress of this house! Word. That is our purpose. I had to write."

"And she doesn't?" He waved at Color emphatically. "She is ready to take up the family calling."

"What?" She looked to Libel directly, as if forgetting Color existed. "Explain, now. What is it you're doing?"

Libel raised a hoof behind her head, squirming uncomfortably. "Mother, I was hoping to announce it at a more proper time and place."

"This is the time and place." She clopped a hoof down, wings fidgeting. "Explain."

"I have... begun work on a book."

Her eyes rolled. "Ugh, is it more of that fictional work? Your prose for drama is... not your strength, my sweet child. This is why I brought you to the paper, where you could play to your specialty." She approached Libel with a little smile. "Your fiction is... acceptable, but--"

"--I'm not writing fiction," she cut in.

"What are you writing?" She cocked a brow. "Tell me then. Impress me."

Impressing her was just what she feared to do. With ears pinned and eyes downcast, Libelous struggled for words. "I-it's about a medical condition, one that affects many ponies, but they're socially... outcast for it. I'm still in the... research... phase of things, but I--"

"I'm falling asleep, Daughter. Impress me."

With cheeks burning red and her teeth set, Libel forced her snout up. "It's going to be a book for ponies of any age that wets themselves or lives with somepony else who does, talking about how to handle it, approach it, and live with it without just stewing in their personal little hells, thinking they're all alone."

Miss Word sat slowly, softly humming to herself as her left forehoof tapped lightly. "How... personal. Be careful about that. You can lose sight of your goal when you make it too... personal."

Color softly coughed into a hoof, his magic pulling another book free. Miss Word whipped up a wing into its path, preventing its flight. "Yes yes, Little Splash, I know I've written very personal books before. Just because I did it does not mean I recommend the same thing to my daughter!" She huffed softly, rising to her hooves. "You are a darling little foal, but you are beyond incorrigible. Make me consider it one more time and I will begin the paddling right where Libelous can watch."

"Do as I say, not as I do," spat out Libel suddenly. "Easy words, Mother."

"I have learned," Miss Word suddenly screamed, heaving a moment. "I have lived and learned and I don't want my... child... to suffer in the same ways I have... I was young once too, you realize. I turned up my nose at my own parent's advice. They warned me away from your father, said they could smell his poor character a mile away, told me to swear him off and find something else."

"But did I listen? And here we are. Where is he, Libelous Word. Where. Is. He?"

Author's Note:

Well, that escalated quickly...

Comments

[Emtu]

straightening his color with her wingtips

collar

You really are a stubborn little cold, Little Splash...

colt

[WARGAMES]

Mother has four gate keeps. Keeper, Watcher, Guard, and, mmm, what was her name... Hen, that's right, Hen

[No one is home]

Hopefully where he belongs, old and all alone, without even the comfort of the foals he walked away from. To answer Miss Word.