Like Mother, Like Daughter

by KorenCZ11

Believe Me, Rarity

There wasn’t any sound when I entered my house, and that set off warning bells in my head. I raced up to the second-floor bathroom and knocked. “Pearl, darling? Are you okay in there?”

“Uh-huh,” came from behind the bathroom door. A breath left me unbidden. A number of stories from Fin, and Applejack’s story just now brought up the idea that she might take drastic measures here.

“Good, good.” Well, she’s alive. Now what? I’ve not eaten much and it’s nearly lunchtime. Maybe a meal will make this easier to get through. “Pearl, darling, um… what would you like for lunch? Perhaps we can make something together!”

Silence. A slight shift in water. “Could… could we make a pizza?”

Ugh, pizza? I’m already overweight as it is, just think of how- Stop, stop. This isn’t about you. “Of course, darling. I’ll go get started on that, let me know when you’re done in there, okay?”

“Yes ma’am.”

And so, off I went, looking through the house to see if there was anything in the pantry, or the fridge. Unsurprisingly, there was enough breakfast cereal to feed a small army in the pantry, a little bit of milk that was near running out in the fridge, and… effectively nothing else but condiments.

Right. It looks like we’ll be going grocery shopping first. Gah! What will I do about her mane? She can’t go out like that! Do I have a wig at the house? Ooh! This is part of the problem! I barely live here! I really do need to take some time off and sort out my life. No wonder she went to Applejack, there’s at least the guarantee of food at the orchard.

A door upstairs opened, and little Pearl came out in a towel. “Uh, change of plans darling. There’s no food in the house, so it looks like we’ll need to go to the market before we can make much of anything.”

“Okay,” she said, placidly. Then her ears shot up. “Oh! Oh…” One of her hooves reached for her mane and her lip quivered.

Bah! Now look what you’ve done! Why can’t you ever do this right? “Uh, I- Um… a wig! Or a hat! We can… we can just cover that right up and nopony will know the difference.”

She looked at me from up there, and I could swear that somehow, even now, the distance between us was growing. “Right. I’ll be in my room, I guess…” and away she slunk.

Oh, I certainly hope I have a wig here. I’ll shave my tail before I make her go out like that, but I’m far too afraid of what she might do if I leave her alone right now. Why does it feel like everything I do comes across as wrong? I can never tell what’s going on in that little head of hers. Whether or not she knows it, she’s just as good as Fancy always was about hiding his emotions. Just… give me a sign, will you?

---

I never found a wig. Keeping to my word, I shaved my tail down and made one for her out of that. It looks gross, makes us look like rats, but, at least we match now. For a minute there, I think I saw Pearl smile, if only just the slightest hints of one. More than nothing, at least.

We went out, taking my little car around Ponyville trying to find what I needed to make a pizza and stock up for a week or two now that my plans have changed. I had to take a call to talk to one of my partners about a design for the upcoming summer line I’m supposed to finish in the next two weeks, and Pearl gave me a dirty look. She hid it very well, but I caught a glimpse of it.

Spite and ire and hate, all present in an instance, and gone the next. Yes, a very good actress. She seemed happy enough to be picking things out as we went about our day, but I suppose being free of school and this… half sister of hers would do that. She cried to me, she confided in me, so she must feel at least a little comfortable in my presence, but I… I just don’t know if that’s enough.

We didn’t say much. Just a few words about what to make for what day of the week, picking out things she likes and things I suspect I’ll be eating while I stress over her or work, or whatever it is I’ll do in the next few days. Time management will be key here, but where will I put it all? Do I have enough hours in the day to work and take care of her? I don’t think I ever have, at least not alone.

Mother and Father, or Applejack, or Pinkie, or Rainbow, or Fluttershy, they’ve always been around to help me when I needed to get something done. They were always convenient and happy to help, but I that’s part of what got me here in the first place, isn't it? If I have to make sacrifices… then that’s what I’ll do.

After returning home, watching a video, screwing up the dough once and then giving in and calling Pinkie, we finally got it right and made ourselves some poorly shaped pizzas. She smiled again, even laughed once when we realized that we were covered in flour. Our coats are so white that we couldn’t even tell until we sat down and a cloud puffed up about us.

“Remind me to make us some colored aprons for next time,” I said.

“Okay, sure. Uh… there’s… gonna be a ‘next time?’” Pearl asked.

I reared back. “Of course! Why wouldn’t there be?”

“Oh! Well… I um… I didn’t think you liked pizza… or would be home for much longer…”

That made me pause. It’s one thing to expect me not to be home, but… if she knew I didn’t care for this, then why…? “Pearl?”

“Yes?” she wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“Did you ask for this knowing full well that I’m not a fan of pizza?”

“N-no…”

I put my hooves on my hips. “Pearl Belle, do not lie to me.”

She cowered, my violet curls shook on her head. “W-well, maybe…”

“Pearl!”

“Okay! I did, geez!”

“Why?”

Pearl clasped her hooves together and pressed her snout against them. “Because… because I just didn’t know what to expect, okay? You’re never here. And even when you are here, you’re always talking to somepony about work, and then you leave for a week.” She clicked her hooves together. “I just… wanted to see what you’d do.”

Now… very different alarm bells were going off in my head. This is… wrong. This whole situation. Something… something doesn’t fit. “Pearl… what was the name of this other filly?”

“Lux De Lis.”

Even the tone in which she said the name of her ‘attacker’ didn’t sound right. It’s… too familiar. She says it casually. Not with hate or fear in her voice, like a real bully, but like this is somepony she knows. Not that I would know, I’m barely around, as she says.

“So… you know her name?”

“We’re in the same class, why wouldn’t I? I know everypony’s name.” Now, it’s almost as if she’s irritated with me for asking.

“Oddly defensive about that, aren’t we?” I crossed my hind and forelegs.

“I am not!”

Oh. Oh. I see what this is. This is why Applejack and Whiskey don’t think Fin is on the mark here. Teenage fillies are scary.

“Now, now, darling, we’re just having a casual conversation, aren’t we? No need to yell.”

She bit into her lip and looked down. “I’m not… yelling…”

“Mmhmm. Tell me something Pearl, what does this ‘Lux de Lis’ look like?”

Pearl swallowed. “W-well… she has a curly blue mane with pink streaks in it, a, um… a white-pink coat, and she’s… she’s got a horn like mine, and she has pink eyes. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I’m simply trying to make sure I have the right pony. After all, she assaulted you based on your account, we’ll be taking her and her mother to court over this.”

“W-what!? Why!?” I found my phone on the other side of the kitchen and brought it to me with my magic. Calmly, I went to the Contactbook website and found Fleur’s page.

“Well, it’s a crime, darling. She could have hurt you. Were she a boy, who knows what she would’ve done to you. We can’t simply let her off the hook for this.”

Pearl froze. “B-but! I… she… we can’t!”

I put my elbow on my knee and my hoof under my chin. Caught. “And… why is that, my darling? She attacked you, didn’t she? Surely she must be punished for forcibly shaving off your beautiful mane and tail.” I took my free hoof and played with my curls sitting so nicely on Pearl’s head.

She backed away from me and stood up. “Okay, fine!” She let out a breath and let her rear fall to the ground. “I… I asked her to do it.”

I raised a brow. “Did you now? And why is that?”

“Because… because I miss you.”

Like an arrow through the heart, the words pierced me. Hurk! Ow, ow, ow. Ooh, I knew it was coming, but by the Goddess, I didn’t expect it to hurt this much.

“I… I wanted to see you, but there’s always something you have to do first, and then you forget to call me back, or even forget that we talked at all! You’re never here anymore, and even when you are, you’re always working, and you don’t spend any time with me! You… you always look at me like you’re afraid of me, and I… I don’t know how to make it stop! Why did… why didn’t you tell me I had a sister?”

Yep. That’s where this was going. That’s what this is all about. “Alright, alright let’s just… take a minute here and establish what happened. You already know who your father is, don’t you?”

Pearl nodded. “Fancy Pants, the real-estate tycoon in Canterlot. It… it is him, right?”

“That is correct. And you came by this information from…?”

“Well, Lux told me. Ponies always tell us that we look really similar. That we look like Cider and Stout do, but for each other. I didn’t really think much of it until somepony put our pictures next to each other. My horn doesn’t look like yours, but it does look like hers. As a matter of fact, a lot of my face looks like hers. I’m short and wide like you are, and she’s tall and slender like her mom.”

Ow. Short and wide? Short and wide!? I know it’s true, but coming from my baby? Short and wide?

“So, one day, she decided to show me a picture of her dad and well… it’s really obvious that he’s my dad too.”

I sighed and nodded. “It… most certainly is. Mane, horn, face. You are definitely the product of ‘high quality stock’ as they say. He comes from old money in Canterlot that can be traced all the way back to Unicornia. And we… short and wide ponies come from intermingling with non-unicorns.”

“And well… that was when we made the plan.”

I tilted my head. “To…?”

“To get you to come home and to get her dad to come visit. We… we thought that if we did something that made you think we were in trouble, that you would come back to see us. So we came up with the story, and we shaved our manes and tails, and we tried it out. But, uh… Lux’s dad never responded to her, and her mom didn’t buy it at all. After she got found out as fast as she did, I… almost didn’t bother calling you. Then I overheard auntie Applejack say she was calling you, and I… I don’t know. I panicked. But… you didn’t pickup.”

“Darling…”

“When you called me this morning, I… didn’t really know what to think. I… I’m not sure if you actually care, I don’t know if you like me more than you like work, so I… I just wanted this to go away. It felt bad enough that I shaved my mane for nothing, I… I didn’t want you to even see me like this.”

Tired had seeped its way into my body and let out an exhausted breath. I took my filly in my magic and brought her to my lap. “Pearl, darling, you must know that I would do anything for you, don’t you?”

She turned away. “I don’t know that. I’m never sure what you’ll do because I never know what you’re thinking. Some design this, some dress that, some store this, this many bits that, all you ever do is talk about work! You’ve skipped out on every school play, you never came to any of my concerts, do you even know that I play for the school orchestra?”

“You do?”

“Yes! I play piano!”

Hmm. Another talented musician in the family? We’ve never been quite sure what Pearl’s cutiemark means. “Well, that explains last month’s private lessons charge I found on my card… But, hold on just a moment. Did you tell me about any of this?”

She rolled her eyes and threw a hoof up. “I tried to! But you’re always on the phone with somepony! You never stop talking, so I never get a chance!” She backed out of my lap and stood in front of me. “Even when you’re here, you’re not really here. And when you do try to talk to me, you say like five words, and then go look for something else to do! Why… why don’t you look at me the way you did earlier, all the time?

“I practiced that stupid crying confession over and over again until I had it all down, and… well, after I wasn’t sure if auntie Applejack was gonna kill you or not, I was… maybe sort of really afraid I did something really bad. But you sang and you held me and… and you were really there.” Pearl sat down and put one of her forehooves on her elbows. “It… it was a lot like when I was little. When you were there all the time. What… what happened to that? Why aren’t you here anymore? Why… are you afraid of me?”

The big question. Why is it that I’m afraid of my own daughter? After all this time, I think… I finally have an answer. The oven beeped three times, signaling that it was heated to the right temperature. I clicked my tongue against my teeth.

“Well… I think it might be because… you’re just like me. And the one thing that I want more than anything else, is for you to turn out better than I did.” I stood, popped my neck, and then pulled open the oven door. “Now then, I am famished. The oven is ready, and we’ve already built the pizza.” I nodded. “After we eat, I’ll… I’ll tell you why it is that I don’t want you to become me. Does… that sound alright?”

Pearl blinked. “You… what?”

“Come now, that pizza is calling! We made it together, let’s put it in together.”

Comments

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Thats an interesting turn.good to know the sisters do get along.