Lost Muse

by David Silver

57 - This Too Shall Pass

Libel sat up, her wings clacking busily at the page. "I think we should get a pre-reader or two."

"Hm?" Bottom peeked up from her notes. "How many do you want?"

Color turned an ear, but most of his attention was on the painting he was slowly realizing. "Just like that, how many?"

"That is the pressing question, is it not?" Bottom half-shrugged. "Give me a number and I'll arrange it."

Day flopped against Bottom. "That's my mare."

"I'm not yours yet." she nipped the closest ear. "Stallions, rushing ahead."

Libel snorted softly in agreement with her mare frind. "Just a few, even one good reader would be fine."

"Three it is." Bottom casually jotted a note with a quill as her hooves continued working at her typewriter. "I presume we want them to review and feedback the first four chapters?"

"Still can't believe my bro is a spy." Day sat up, looking off into the distance. "We're still bros though, right?"

Color twisted an ear towards him. "You think you were struck by that? She was... looking interested at me. I still wonder if that was all an act."

"Nah."

Color hurled a small dry brush at Day. "That is my least favorite word from you sometimes."

Day accepted the impact with a lazy smile. "She really likes you, but she said she would leave you alone if you're with Libel. She ain't a bad pony."

Libel cleared her throat softly. "She saved my back end... while working for my mother. I'm very conflicted. Either way, yes, three readers, do that." She pointed at Bottom briefly before her eyes fixed on her paper, resuming her typing. "We are making such great progress, I just want to be sure someone other than just us agrees."

"Understandable." Bottom lifted a paper from her typewriter with her magic and floated it towards Libel. "Here's the research you were asking about."

"Mm?" She reached a wing to accept it and had a peek. "Oh! Medical, yeah, thanks." She set it down gently. "Lovely and just on time. You are a master of timing, let me note."

"I only need the 'pre-readers' I have in this room." Color backed up from the painting and gestured at it. "How's it looking?"

All eyes turned to the canvas they had been ignoring. "Nice," breathed out Bottom with a smile.

"There we are." A glowing arrow pointed at where Canterlot and its mountain was a small little thing on the hovering world in the night sky. Luna was on the much larger moon, standing so stalwartly against the unknown. "It's very nice. Did she select the armor?"

"She did." Color nodded with a smile. "Could you tell that?"

"A guess. She is fairly particular, especially in regards to her own appearance. If you had to select them for her, the odds of her raising concerns would be troublingly high."

Day leaned a bit onto Bottom. "Did I mention she let me wear a night guard helmet?"

"I'm sure you looked quite fierce," joked Bottom with a little smile, resuming her typing on a new sheet of paper.

Color snorted at that. "He tickled me with tufted ears, the fierce guardian of the night."

Libel threw a fetlock over her snout to cover a burst of laughter. "He did not?! It's too easy to imagine that. So... it is the armor then? I always wondered."

Day nodded softly. "Mmhmm. I had slitted eyes and cute ears and everything. She didn't let me try on the rest of the armor. I wonder if I would have gotten the wings or not..."

Bottom nudged him back into an upright position. "Of that I doubt. She likely just recruits pegasi for the position. At best, you'd get illusory wings that never did anything."

"That'd still be cool." He nodded once, firm in his beliefs. "Would you still love me if I was a guardian of the night?"

Bottom raised a brow. "No." She leaned over and touched her nose to his cheek. "That is not you. You are a guardian of the garden. Soft and cute and lovable. Keep doing that, please."

"I'll try, but I dunno... if Luna offers it..."

"I'll pounce you to the ground." Her hooves kept tick-tacking haltlessly. "I'll bite you until you give up and turn back into the Day Dreamer I decided I like being around. It's your fault, you know what pony I fell in with, and I won't give them up easily."

"You two are adorable." Libel set a paper aside on a small pile. "I think this chapter's done. Get those readers and we'll see what they think of it so far."

Bottom rose to her hooves, abandoning her writer. "You are used to feedback." She smiled a little. "Normally that'd come from your boss, or other editors."

Libel shrank back a step. "What? I mean, we could keep writing."

"As my boy says, Nah."

"I have another brush right here," threatened Color with a smirk, the other clean brush wagging menacingly.

"I'd catch it." Day's eyes were on Libel. "It's alright. Getting feedback isn't a bad thing. I'll place getting pre-readers as the number one priority." With a glowing horn, she pushed the typewriter aside. "That is now my quest."

"Ooo, a quest?" Day rose to his hooves. "Can I help?"

"Onwards, brave partner. Let's find some pre-readers." She trotted from the room with Day trailing behind her.

Libel smiled thinly at her departed friend and partner before glancing back at Color. "So... while I have a brief moment, when do we see your parents? I can't imagine it will be nearly as bad as mine."

"I just have a mom too." He floated his wet brush over to the sink to wash, his mood to paint diminished the moment. "For... similar reasons, come to think, with less heroics, misguided or not, involved."

"Tell me about it?" Libel turned to Color fully. "If you want. If not, I understand. I'd be a horrible pony if I insisted after all this."

"You would be." He smiled gently at her. "He had a little heart trouble, nothing big, the doctor's thought. Something they could fix, routine procedure... He never came home." He sighed gently. "At least he went while we were there, at the hospital. All of us, the entire family... We were crowded around his bed, wishing him a speedy recovery... but he knew. He knew... He looked us all in the eye, somehow. We were all around him, but we all felt him staring right at us..."

He raised a fetlock to wipe at his wet eyes. "He said his goodbyes softly to each of us in turn, and as a whole. He said such wonderfully nice things... We laughed... We... told him to be more optimistic... We told him we loved him... Everything would be... fine... At least one of those things was true..."

Libel sat up with a strangled gasp. "Color! You don't have to!"

But he went on, "he faded away... right there, and right then. His head sagged off to the side with a little smile. He had said his goodbyes, and that was that, he was content. He was gone... The machines began beeping, loud and angry, but none of us could hear it. We were all staring at him... It was so... unreal. This... This stallion that had been such a part of our lives... He couldn't have gone, just like that. We sat there with the stupidest looks on our faces. The nurses rushed into the room with a doctor. They had to shove us out of the room, not because we were trying to be jerks, but we couldn't move. We were... We..."

He clopped a hoof down. "It's a hurt that never goes away entirely... I miss him..."

Libel reached a wing around him, drawing him against her. He cried silently into her fur and she just held him all the tighter. "I'm here," she whispered. "We are two cracked ponies, aren't we?"

He peeked up at her and nipped her chest. "It's the cracks that makes us real ponies." He sat back a little, sniffling. "Who wants to be a flawless little cup with no stories? So... uh... mom. I'd call her, but she doesn't have a phone... I could write a letter?"

Libel smiled at that, gesturing towards his painting. "That's looking suspiciously close to presentable. Why don't we just stop by one day?"

"That's too mean! No, we'll at least send a letter letting her know we're stopping by." He nodded with growing conviction. "She likes routines... Another reason dad passing really took it out of her. Half her routines circled him, and then... gone. Some of us were worried she'd fade away without him there."

"But she didn't, I assume?" Libel perked an ear as she stood up. "She must have new routines."

"And now I feel guilty." He smiled awkwardly. "I have to find out what she actually does these days. I'm actually not entirely sure... I was already moved out when that all happened... We exchange Hearth's Warming cards, but that's about it... I'm an awful son."

"Don't say that." She picked up a dry brush with a wing and tickled Color's nose lightly, forcing a sneeze out of him. "You're coming home with a new girlfriend, who may give her grandfoals. She'll be delighted."

Color rapidly darkened in his cheeks. "I thought you weren't even thinking about that!"

"I promised my mother I'd at least consider it..."

"Wait, you're taking the manor?"

"I am." She waved a hoof around the house she owned. "I can stop paying for this, sell it for a tidy sum, and consolidate the family holdings a little. It's a generous offer, and her terms aren't onerous. Demanding I consider something is not out of bounds for a mother to ask, really."

Color moved up to press his nose to hers. "For what it's worth, I think you would be a lovely mother, and I would help in every possible manner you requested of me."

"Oh, good." Libel nodded once curtly. "I'll schedule the procedure then. You'll be ready to wetnurse the foal for me."

Color began to darken rapidly. "Libel!" he squeaked, his hindlegs coming together. "Anything that doesn't prevent me from being Sir Splash."

Libel burst into soft laughter, happy to see Color embarrassed instead of sad. "I'd only do it if you wanted to, fair is fair though, so the offer is open in case you ever decide to give it a try. You can't poke at me to consider being a mother if I can't return the favor." She brushed past him, tail lashing his side. "You're cute just the way you are though, let there be no doubt."

"Glad to hear it." He nipped the tail when it came close to his snout. "For what it's worth, I'm perfectly happy with you precisely as you are."

"Liar!" She turned on him with a smirk. "You keep pushing me to change, it's just not physical changes. You want me to face my mother, and deal with my daddy issues, and keep right on maturing and no you can't pretend that problem isn't there, Libel, deal with it!" She rolled her eyes grandly. "You love changing me, Color, stop denying it."

"No No, Libel, quit your job," she went on, strolling across the room. "You can do it! Just write what you want for a change. What's the worst that could happen?! Pfft, don't want me to change? Ha!"

"W-what, I mean, you know what I mean!" He raced after her, pressing against her side. "We shouldn't ever stop growing. You made me grow a lot since I met you, again. I'm not mad about that, but that doesn't translate quite so well to 'let some random unicorn mutate you for my benefit.'"

"Says you." She bumped against him with a snort. "Now, dinner. I'm in the mood for seafood. You in?"

Author's Note:

Project Succinct is complete, for the moment. Doesn't mean there aren't other things to ponder and deal with.

Comments

[badninja]

That is sad. I wonder how both of them having lost their fathers will effect how they would raise any foals they have?

[Dashie04]

9415630
They’ll treat them well for sure.

---

I don’t mean to brag (maybe I do a little), but I don’t think I need proofreaders for my writing. One time in English, we were doing some proofreading, and the only people who caught any mistakes in my work was myself.

((I say that and go on to correct 3 mistakes in this comment, I promise I’m good.))

[Midknight Defender]

9415670
But that's precisely why everyone needs proofreaders.

Typos are sneaky little buggers that hide in the oddest places. Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to ferret them out!

[Dashie04]

9416284
It’s my iPad’s small keyboard, and the fact I turned autocorrect off.

I’ve typed ‘and ‘ as ‘amd’ more times than I’d like to admit.