On a Riverboat to the Sea

by Jarvy Jared

Chapter Five: Asked what about life could not change

Frigid came by the room the next morning. Velvet answered in her nightgown. “Come with me,” Frigid simply said. “There’s somepony I want you to meet.”

Something compelled Velvet to listen—perhaps the fact that Frigid now seemed perfectly capable of cordiality. Night was still asleep, but Velvet nevertheless stole out of the room, leaving him a note.

They went to the Fillies’ Parlor on the Cabin Deck. It was vacant, allowing Velvet to see the peach-colored room’s entirety. There were several comfy chairs set up around palm tree wood tables. A pony sat in one of those chairs. Only the tops of her mane and ears peeked out the back portion of the chair.

Frigid guided Velvet over to that area. The pony on the chair jerked her head and stared at Velvet, wide-eyed.

Galahad’s mother. She was nervous. She said nothing, waiting for Velvet to speak.

“Take a seat,” Frigid said. She was pointing to the chair opposite of the pegasus.

Velvet considered leaving. Whatever this was, she didn’t want to deal with it. But Frigid had brought her here, and she couldn’t imagine it was only to make a situation even more awkward. So she sighed and took the requested seat. Frigid settled on a third.

But she didn’t appear intent on guiding the rest of the conversation. There were some lifestyle magazines on the table, and she took one of them in her magic and began to flip through it, though Velvet couldn’t be sure she was actually reading.

The pegasus leaned forward, a hoof raised as though she meant to touch Velvet with it. At the last second, she hesitated, and simply placed it on the coffee table with a dull thud. “I didn’t get to introduce myself, when…” She shook her head and tried for a smile. She looked remarkably young, a few years older than Velvet’s daughter. “I’m Misty Amber.”

Velvet automatically went to introduce herself, but realized that’d be pointless. “It’s nice to meet you, Misty,” she said. She looked at Frigid, but she was too busy not reading. “So…”

“Right,” Misty said. She fluttered her wings and looked at anything but Velvet. “It’s... ah, well… yes, you see… I suppose…” A heated blush came to her cheeks. She coughed. “I wanted… I wanted to apologize. For what happened.”

“Ah. Right.” Velvet felt her own cheeks darken at the memory. “Well, look, it’s not that big of a deal—”

“It’s just, you know, you’re you and that means, or has meant, a lot, I mean, a whole lot to me, for the longest time, now, so meeting you in person like that, with Galahad, it was, it was—” Abruptly, she shut her mouth and groaned behind her teeth. “Goddess save me, I’m sorry! I swear, I’m not normally this frazzled, it’s just—” She paused. Took a breath. “Sorry. Could I have a moment?”

To Velvet’s astonishment, Misty closed her eyes, held a hoof to her chest, and breathed deeply in, exhaled deeply out, three times—exactly as her daughter and daughter-in-law did. That brought a smile to her face.

“I think it’ll make a lot more sense if I start from the beginning,” Misty began. “You remember what happened when the Storm King invaded, right?”

Though it seemed like a random topic, Velvet answered affirmatively.

“Equestria wasn’t the only place he invaded. He sent a small division to Griffonstone to steal something called the Idol of Boreas, since he believed it might increase his power. What he didn’t know was that the Idol had been lost for centuries. That small division ended up fighting the griffons over nothing but myth and legend. They lost… but so did the griffons.”

Misty’s ears lowered. “I was working as a doctor there—part of a new ‘doctors without borders’ policy. I tried to save as many as I could, but that wasn’t everyone.” She took a shaky breath. “Galahad’s family, a somewhat significant noble house… They were already in decline with the rest of Griffonstone. All he had left before the attack were his mother, father, and aging uncle. Afterwards…”

She couldn’t finish. She covered her face with a wing. For a moment, aside from the boat creaking and the ocean splashing, there was another sound filling that room. Even Frigid had stopped her page turning to give it the space it needed.

“They’d welcomed me to their country—about as warm of a welcome you can get when you aren’t a griffon,” Misty continued. “I felt I owed them something, and as horrible as those circumstances were, well…”

She paused again, her muzzle scrunching up. Velvet was suddenly seized by an urge to pass her a glass of water, but there were none available in the lounge. Her own mouth was dry.

“I’d never thought about having kids,” Misty then whispered. Her eyes widened at the admission, and she looked, frightened, at Velvet. The other mare gave a slight nod of encouragement, but even so it took a bit for the words to come. “I’d always thought I’d be too busy with my job to have one. But…”

“But with Galahad, you felt like you had to try.”

“Yes.” Misty swallowed. “And because I remembered you.”

Something changed in Misty. An iron strength appeared behind her purple eyes. Her voice rang with conviction. “I guess more specifically I remembered your children. Prince Shining Armor, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Two ponies who’ve grown to be two of Equestria’s most significant figures, and that isn’t exactly an exaggeration. I’ve wondered how that happened—not if some magic or doohickey was involved, mind you, but how children grow up that way? I thought about you having to do this, and then everything made sense. And look at your children! Look at what they’ve done and all they’ve become. That has to be because of you.” Misty’s gaze returned to the table. Her voice softened. “And I thought, if you can do that, then I can, too. I can help Galahad, give him a family, a home, a life, all the things he needs to grow, to laugh, to be happy.”

She raised her head, but instead of looking at Velvet, she peered through the parlor’s windows. “I didn’t expect to be a mother. But things changed, and I just knew. And when I saw you the other day, I wanted… I wanted to thank you.”

Then she was quiet. The ship creaked and swayed back and forth, back and forth.

Velvet was about to say something, when Frigid snorted. “Careful, child. Don’t go putting strangers on pedestals.”

“Oh, no!” Misty exclaimed. “I don’t mean to, really!”

“I’m sure you don’t,” Velvet said. “But, well, you shouldn’t say it’s all because of me, all right? I mean, I’m… I guess I’m honored that you’d think of me like that. But I’m just an ordinary pony.”

“With extraordinary kids!”

“With extraordinary kids, fine. But still, just a pony. That hasn’t changed, even if—” Even if my children have, and my life has a result? “Besides,” Velvet pressed on, “you’re the one who made that decision in the end. That should count for something.”

“I know, I know. It’s just…” Misty sighed. “It’s just that half the time, I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing. It’s been months, and yet it still all feels so new.” She rubbed her eyes with a wing, her face flushed. “I’ve tried to give him a sense of stability in his life—something that he needs after everything. But what if it isn’t enough? What if he gets worse? What if I make things worse?”

Then she let out an empty laugh. “Sorry. I must sound crazy. I mean, I’m his mom. I’m not supposed to worry about that.”

“No,” Velvet immediately said. “That’s exactly what you’re supposed to worry about.” She held up a hoof before Misty could interrupt. “Look. Parenting is hard, there isn’t a roadmap for it, and you’ll never truly know what tomorrow will bring. So you’ll worry. You can’t teach them everything, and you can’t protect them from everything. But what you can do is try and prepare them as best you can, and love them, and hope they’ll find their way.”

Then Velvet felt as if she detached herself from her body mid-speech, and in the midst of listening to herself talk, she was peering back through her life at her children. Had she prepared them? No, she wanted to initially think. After all, nopony could prepare a son to be a prince, or a daughter to be a princess, let alone the Princess. That had been Celestia’s doing, or Harmony’s, or fate’s, or whatever. She hadn’t had a say in the matter. She should have felt bitter about that, and maybe she was.

But there was another emotion in her. Was it pride? It felt like an echo of it, and yet it had no word that she could name. But it made the bitterness fade, like how myths do over time. In that moment of weird detachment, she witnessed her body rise from the couch and cross the length of the table to give Misty a hug. Also in that same moment, she witnessed another version of herself play through her memories of her children. Every time they yelled, every time they cried, every time they had argued with her, asked for her, helped her and asked to be helped—these pooled forth in that infinitesimally small moment and made it infinite.

She’d been many things, she realized, and many things had she been made not of her own accord—but out of all of them, being a mother was undoubtedly her most prized possession.

Coffee spoons again—that was how her life was measured. But those small measurements still carried much weight.

Misty’s tears brought Velvet back into herself. Their hug broke. Misty’s voice shook a little. “It’s just been so hard sometimes, for both of us. Not just being a mom, but being his mom. Everypony staring at us when we go out in public, silently asking what we were. It didn’t matter how many times I told them I was just his mother, and he was my kid…” Misty blew out a hot breath. “That’s why I wanted us to go on this cruise, you see. I thought we could get away from it all, momentarily, at least. But, well, you remember what happened in the engine room.”

A pang of guilt cut through Velvet; she’d wondered the same before boarding. “I’m sorry, Misty. No mother should have to deal with that.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a slight tremor come over Frigid’s face. It seemed she, too, was struck by guilt.

“It’s not your fault. I… try not to let it get to me. It was just too much, though. Maybe if I had thought for a moment longer…”

“It wouldn’t do to linger on it. You’re his mother. Plain and simple. And for the record, I think you’re doing an amazing job at it.”

Misty’s smile was modest. “Thank you, Velvet. I wish Galahad were here to hear that. But he’s still asleep in his room.”

“Is he still upset about what happened?”

“He was before… I was a bit harsh on him, I realized that, so I did apologize.” She sighed. “I think it was just the stress of having to deal with another pony questioning why there’s a griffon on the ship that added to my… um… ‘excitement.’ But afterwards, Galahad felt a bit better. We went to the performance going on in the Grand Galloping Saloon the other day. I think he enjoyed it.” The small smile which she’d been holding seemed to take the early morning sun into itself. “It was good to see him happy. For the longest time I thought he wouldn’t be. It looks like this trip was just what he needed.”

Then she sighed. “It’s a shame it’ll be over soon. But I guess that’s just how things are, right? Happy things end before they ought to. That’s what makes them meaningful.” She scrunched up her face. “Ugh, now you’ve got me preaching sappy stuff.”

“You’ll get used to it, believe me.” She went to laugh, but at that moment, her stomach gurgled loudly. Velvet’s face burned. “I, ah, don’t suppose you girls would be interested in joining me for an early breakfast?”

---

“Nuh-uh.” Misty shook her head as the trio descended a stairwell at the second deck of the stern. “Pancakes over waffles. It’s evidence-based medicine.”

Velvet snorted. “Oh, heck. First Equestria’s throne falls into the hooves of a heretic, and now it turns out my newest friend is one of them?”

“The Royal Grandmother speaks the truth.” Frigid’s voice’s barely changed in tone, but Velvet could see the attention in her eyes. Misty opened her mouth to retort.

A heavy thunk shook the stairwell. Frigid and Misty clung to the railings. Velvet legs tensed.

A second thunk, punctuated by a cry, echoed through the stairs. The trio’s ears twitched. It came from the engine room.

After exchanging wide-eyed stares, they crept their way to the ajar engine room door. Narrowed eyes peered through the crack, spotting two shadows. The engineer’s shadow clutched his head with one hoof while the other reached out at his assailant.

“No, wait! What are you doing?!”

Another thunk. Another body on hard metal.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the second shadow whispered harshly. Velvet’s heart leaped into her throat.

Misty choked back a gasp. “That’s—”

Velvet didn’t think. Before the other mares could stop her, she lit her horn and pulled the door fully open, then galloped inside.

There were two unconscious ponies on the floor of the engine room. As such, they did not hear what Twilight Velvet could: the eerie whine of a steam release valve—like a pup retreating after a hit from its owner…

Comments

[ThePinkedWonder]

Poor Misty. She's doing her best, but has those worries about how well she's doing as a mom. I kinda wonder if my mom had those thoughts when she was raising me and my older brother, especiialy since my dad died before I was born.