At The Bottom Of The Bottle
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOTTLE
By UniqueSKD
Ruby was awakened with a start, the sound of a loud crash having disturbed her sleep, and taking her away from her fantasy dreams. She sat upright in her bed, frightened and confused, as to what had happened outside her bedroom door. Her fears quickly disappeared when she heard the all-too-familiar sound of slurred words, uttering a loud apology from downstairs.
Drunk Mommy was home.
Sighing with a mixed tone of relief and sadness, Ruby threw back her covers, and climbed out of her bed. Making her way over to the door of her bedroom she opened it up a little, enough to peek through the small gap. As her room was directly in front of the stairs, she had a decent view of the downstairs hallway, where she could see her mother, in a drunken state as she had suspected, mumbling apologetically to a broken flower vase, shattered into large fragments on the carpeted floor, water soaking the ground and the pretty flowers which had been contained within it laying in a pile. The front door was wide open, letting in a cold chilling breeze of the night air.
Ruby shivered a little as she felt the cold wind tickle her body, even from here in her warm bedroom.
"Sorreh, meester, ah didn't - HIC! - see yur there," Ruby overheard her mother say to the smashed flower vase. Unsurprisingly, the broken pottery did not dignify her with a response. Ruby watched her mother poke the broken fragments cautiously with her hoof, as though she were thinking it to be a corpse, before shrugging it off and walking - or rather, stumbling - away towards the kitchen. She left the front door wide open, allowing anypony who was still up at this time to see into the home the little filly shared with her mother.
Ruby took this as her cue to open her door completely, and tip-hoof down the stairs to the front door. Taking care not to step in any of the shards of the smashed vase, Ruby closed the door, and locked it tight. The bogeypony that stalked the world under the cover of night was denied entry into the home once more.
Again taking care not to step in any of the shards, Ruby crept towards the kitchen, where she saw her mother opening the cupboards and drawers, looking for something. Ruby had a good idea what that something would just so happen to be - Mommy's 'Happy Drink'. The stuff that made Mommy into Drunk Mommy, and Drunk Mommy into Even Drunker Mommy, otherwise known as Not-So-Nice Mommy.
Berry Punch turned around as she closed the pantry room door she had been exploring in her quest for the 'Happy Drink', and stopped when she saw her filly standing in the archway. Berry smiled sheepishly as she stare at her daughter with half-lidded eyes, barely managing to remain steady on her intoxicated hooves. "Hullo, er, 'Ruby', girl. Mommy's - HIC! - home from tha bar I likes," she stuttered, giving her daughter an innocent little wave of her hoof, which nearly caused her to fall on her side.
Ruby didn't answer her mother. She just stood there, looking at her boozed-up parent, smiling sheepishly, drunkenly, back at her. Ruby didn't like Drunk Mommy, not one bit. She liked Regular Mommy, the one who smiled when she greeted her in the morning, who waited for her outside of school when the home-time bell rang, who didn't make a scene at her pantomime plays when she was given the lead role.
Drunk Mommy was not her Mommy. She just looked like her, but she wasn't HER Mommy.
And it was all the fault of that stupid stuff Mommy called her 'Happy Drink'. That bottle which turned her Nice Mommy into Not-So-Nice Mommy every time she drank from it. Mommy used to say that it helped to calm her down, to relax her nerves and allow her to cope with Daddy not being around anymore. But that was the excuse from three years ago. Ruby was young, but she was a lot more mature and wiser for her age than she let on. She had to be, especially when Drunk Mommy had come into her life, and stolen her Regular Mommy from her.
Berry teetered over to her daughter and knelt down beside her, her daughter cringing from the reek of booze lingering on her tongue. "Hey, sweetie," Berry began, her head swaying side to side, "have you - HIC! - have you seen Mammy's - HIC! - Mommy's - HIC! - 'Happy Drink' anywhere? Mommy needs it behdly..."
Oh, Ruby knew where it was alright. She looked her Mommy in the eyes as she replied. "I put it all down the sink."
Berry Punch froze, a horrified expression on her face as she stared at her daughter. Her sheepish smile was gone, replaced by a frown, and her ears twitched. "Whuh?"
Ruby gulped, her mother's reaction making her uncomfortable. She took a step back, and repeated herself. "I...I put it all down the sink, Mommy," she said again, a little quieter this time, nervously.
An awkward few moments passed between the two ponies, an intense and deathly silence hung in the air, as Berry took in what her daughter had just said. In her drunken state, her first response to her daughter's words was a forceful hoof to her child's chest, pushing her over onto her haunches. Taken by surprise by her mother's action, Ruby was unable to get up quickly enough before her mother stood over her, glaring daggers at her. Mommy was scary when she was angry.
"You little brat! Why would you do something like that?", bellowed the angry creature that Ruby barely recognized as her mother. Her face was twisted into a snarl, and fierce eyes burning with seething fury. Her mother's chest rose and fell as she inhaled and exhaled furiously. The awful stench of alcohol assaulted Ruby's nostrils, and she nearly gagged at the smell.
Ruby shivered in fear beneath her Mommy, tears streaming down her face and cheeks, cowering and curling up into a ball on the floor. She didn't like Not-So-Nice Mommy. Not one bit.
Berry Punch raised a hoof in a threatening manner, as she roared again. "Why did you do it, you little brat?", she demanded. Her hoof remained raised in the air, like a guillotine ready to sever the head of the guilty.
Ruby closed her eyes as she spoke in a sobbing tone what she thought would be her last words of the night. "B-B-Because I wan-wanted my M-Mommy back!", the little child bawled.
Despite her drunken state, something within Berry Punch's mind clicked. She remained still in place, looking down on her daughter, who couldn't hold back her tears as she exploded into a wailing fit. She stood there, her hoof still raised above her head, for a long minute.
She brought her hoof down upon her daughter, who flinched and tightly closed her eyes before it made contact with her little body...
...only to open them again when she felt another hoof throw itself around her, pulling her in close to her mother's chest.
Berry Punch held her little girl tightly to her chest, so close that Ruby was able to hear her pounding heartbeat. She began stroking away at her daughter's mane, holding her closely as though just a simple little breeze could pry her filly from her hooves. Her eyes were wide with shock and horror, the realization of the moment having just hit her, a steady stream of tears building up in her eyes and slowly making their way down her cheeks, dripping from her face and down onto her daughters, both their tears mixing together and falling to he floor.
"I'm so sorry, sweetie. I am so, so sorry," Berry Punch apologized to her little girl, her voice barely louder than a whisper, her voice breaking slightly as she spoke. Her hold on her daughter strengthened, and she began stroking her daughter's mane with more enthusiasm.
Ruby responded the only way she could think of at that moment - she threw her little hooves around her mother, her Regular Mommy, as she cried tears along with her. "It's o-okay, Mommy. I just wanted y-you back."
Berry Punch leaned away from her daughter and held her face in her hooves, bringing one up to her daughter's eyes and wiping away her tears. "I am so sorry, Ruby," Berry sniffled. She turned her head away to cough, clearing her throat before looking into her filly's eyes again, her own filled with guilt and sadness. "I am so sorry you have to see Mommy like this. You did the right thing pouring that evil stuff away. You're such a good girl, and Mommy shouldn't have acted like that to you. I promise you, dear. Mommy will do better for you, okay?". She pulled her daughter in close for another warm and heart-felt embrace.
"Mommy will do better for you, sweetheart. She's so sorry..."
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
The broken vase was soon cleaned up by Berry Punch, and the mess left on the carpet taken care of as well. Berry, feeling more sober now, made herself and her daughter two cups of warm cocoa, as they sat in the living room, close to each other on a comfy sofa. Ruby rested her head on her mother's side, held in her parent's foreleg. Berry promised her little filly that come the dawn of the next morning, she would dispose of all the nasty so-called 'Happy Drink' in the house, and begin making improvements, to make herself a better Mommy for her little girl.
Ruby was just glad to have her real Mommy back again. As she began to let exhaustion take over her being, Ruby yawned and smiled up at her mother, who looked down and smiled back at her.
The answer to one's problems in life are not found at the bottom of the bottle.
Sometimes, they were found right in front of you.
THE END