Family Photo
So… this was her family, huh?
Well, it was a nice shot of them for sure. Her father looked professional in all the right ways with his tailor-made business suit and the black tie, his orange and red mane combed back and making him look a good five years older than he actually was. The serious look on his face, broken by a smile that was only visible when looking very closely, gave him an aura of authority and professionalism – quite fitting for a pony in his position, really.
Her mother, standing right next to her husband, a wing around his back, was smiling into the camera with the confident smile of a successful businessmare, her black blazer and white blouse giving her just the right balance of sobriety and casualness while her loosely braided, long blue mane kept her from looking too uptight and strict.
And in the middle of the two, sitting on the ground with that professional smile she had learned from her mother, her blue and turquoise mane done in a sleek-looking bun and wearing her neatly ironed and immaculately stainless school uniform, was she.
Apogee felt a smile form on her face as she looked at the photograph in her hooves. She was sitting on her freshly-made bed in her room, waiting patiently for her cue, and idly let her gaze wander over the spacious and bright room she called her own as she lowered the picture frame.
Two big windows to her right flooded the room with the light of the rising morning sun, providing a great view of the skyline of Las Pegasus where commuter traffic was in full swing. Standing next to the window and opposite to her bed was her desk – normally cluttered with papers and notes of all sorts, she had made sure to leave it nice and immaculately tidy for the occasion. Located next to that was her closet, as well as the door leading out into the hallway.
The wall to her left was almost completely filled out by a giant mural of the Starsailer – the first ever spaceship-prototype her parents had designed. It was a leftover from her pre-teenage years, back when almost all of her room had been filled out with aerospace-memorabilia. Her parents had suggested to have it painted over now that she was a teenager, but she had insisted she’d keep something that made her so utterly proud up on her wall – after all, her parents had designed a spaceship! Who else could say that about their parents?
Hanging on the wall next to the painting was a smaller pad calendar, indicating that today was indeed March 21 – the day of days!
However, even that seemed to fade next to her most prized possession, hung right above the calendar. Another picture frame, holding a sheet of checkered paper, torn from no other place than her parents’ original sketchbook, and depicting nothing short of the first ever sketch of the Starsailer, drawn in her mother’s style she knew so well, and with various annotations and diagrams drawn in her father’s handwriting next to them, depicting factors such as airflow, heat reduction, and the likes.
Even now she could feel a smile form on her face, accompanied by a strong feeling of pride in her chest, knowing that her parents… her parents had designed something that was now flying thousands of miles above their heads, safely carrying ponies into space and back. It was a realization she still struggled to wrap her mind around, even after all these years.
Next to that was a small glass cabinet holding various winner certificates, ribbons and a smaller trophy – the singing competition last summer was one of her fondest memories, even if she had only scored second place. Winning science fairs had become almost a regular thing for her in recent years, whereas swimming was something she had only gotten into a few months ago, but already scored a fairly decent place in the last competition – she was a natural, if her trainer was to be believed.
Standing to her left was also her nightstand, holding the family photo she had been looking at earlier. While it did gain her a few strange looks from visitors, seeing how most other ponies would have photos and posters of rock-stars or actors in their rooms, her family was something she took great pride in, and it had been a no-brainer where she would put the photo when her father had given it to her a few months ago.
Her ears perked up as she heard the sound of the doorknob being turned from outside, and she quickly put the picture frame back in its place, straightening herself up, hooves resting on her thighs.
Ever so slowly, careful not to cause any noise, the door to her room slid open, and peeking his head through the gap was a beige pegasus stallion.
“Morning Dad!” Apogee shouted gushingly as she jumped up off her bed, ran over to the door and threw herself at her father, who reacted in a split second and quickly spread out his forelegs, catching his daughter as she flung her arms around his neck.
“Oof… morning, sweetie,” Jet Stream gasped, slowly lowering his daughter to the ground. “My, you just keep growing and growing.”
“You know what day it is?” Apogee asked excitedly, having to contain herself to not jump up and down with hype. “Do you? Do you?”
“How could I ever forget with that note you’ve left me?” Jet replied, lightly rolling his eyes. “I know sticky notes can be fun, but I would have remembered even without you plastering my face with them.”
“I… I just wanted to be extra sure…” Apogee said a bit sheepishly, looking to the ground.
“Oh well…” Jet said with a light sigh, but then paused, causing his daughter to look back up at him.
“Happy Birthday Apogee!” he said, shooting forward and pulling his daughter into a tight hug which the filly reciprocated to the fullest, snuggling her head into his chest fur.
“Thanks Dad.” She replied softly.
For a moment the two remained silent like this, enjoying the proximity to each other, then Jet pulled back, motioning out the door and saying, “Come on, Mom is preparing breakfast downstairs. Let’s go and grab some grub.”
“Waaay ahead of you!” Apogee chanted happily, dashing past her father and into the brightly painted, modern hallway of their penthouse.
Seconds later, the newly minted thirteen-year-old came trotting down the stairs, the familiar scent of freshly-made coffee and pancakes hitting her nostrils and causing her smile to widen all the more.
She heard steps as she approached the bottom end of the stairs, and walking from the kitchen came a neatly groomed and – despite the white apron around her chest – still utterly professional-looking cyan pegasus mare.
“Well, if it isn’t the birthday girl,” she said, raising a hoof to gently brush her long, neatly-made blue mane out of her face. “Come here you.”
“Hey Mom!” Apogee greeted her happily as she wasted no time crossing the modernly furnished living room and walking up to her mother, greeting her like she had greeted her dad before.
“Happy Birthday, dear,” Delta Vee said softly as she pulled her daughter into a hug. Her voice sounded so… nicely smooth and soft. Her apron had single splotches of pancake-batter on it, which Apogee promptly, stealthily cleared away with her tongue – wouldn’t want any of it to go waste, right?
“Did Dad wake you?” Delta asked as she pulled back, gently patting her daughter’s back.
Apogee shook her head, quickly licking her lips to clear away any evidence. “Nah, I was awake way before him.”
Her mother gave a brief chuckle. “Of course you were. You take right after your dad, after all – never could sleep either when something important was inbound. Oh well…” she gently grabbed her daughter by the shoulder, turning her around and pointing her into the direction of a generously equipped breakfast table. “Have a seat, sweetie. Pancakes will be ready in a sec.”
Apogee gave an excited squee and wasted no time dashing over to her designated spot at the head end of the table – a spot that was normally reserved for her father, but it had become tradition that he would yield his sacred spot to his daughter once a year in celebration of her special day.
Her mother, who had watched her with a slightly bemused smile, lightly shook her head before retreating into the kitchen to do the final preparations for breakfast. Meanwhile, steps coming from the stairs indicated that Jet Stream was on his way down as well.
Apogee excitedly bit her lip, not even needing to turn around to know what was to come now.
When it came to presents, she definitely took after her mother – even though she had reached her teens now, for her there was nothing quite as exciting as a big… a very big present wrapped in colorful paper. Most of her relatives and friends had by now moved on to giving her plain envelopes with a few bits or gift vouchers in them, but her parents, knowing about this secret passion of hers, would always make sure to give her the biggest and most astonishingly-wrapped presents, even if its contents would oftentimes turn out to be smaller-sized things like concert-tickets, a new phone, and the likes.
And it seemed her parents wouldn’t disappoint her this year either, as a soft but noticeable thud indicated that her father had set down his cargo on the floor behind her. Excitedly, she turned her head around, and could feel her smile widen by at least three times.
A big… no, a huge box, almost as tall as her, was set on the ground in front of her, wrapped in rocket-themed gift wrap, and with a large blue ribbon on top, her name written on it in broad, big letters.
Her wings spread out in excitement. No matter what any of her classmates said, she definitely would not ever get too old for this!
She already found herself wanting to get up from her chair, but just like every year, she was stopped by a beige hoof placed gently on her shoulder.
“Nu-uh,” she heard her father hold her back as he came walking from behind her, taking a seat at the table next to her in the spot where she would sit on regular mornings. “You know the rules, missy. Breakfast first, then you can go wild on your presents.”
“Yeah Dad,” Apogee replied with a roll of her eyes, scrunching up her face. Well, rules were rules after all.
“Oh, by the way…” Jet Stream spoke up, causing his daughter to raise her head and look at him. “You don’t have anything planned for tonight, do you?”
That caused the filly to think for a second, then stiffen. Was he… was he on to what she thought he was on to?
Seeing the look on his daughter’s face, Jet couldn’t hold back a smile as well as he tried to play it cool, continuing, “Cause, y’know, there was this thing me and your mother thought you might want to-“
”The meteor shower!” Apogee exclaimed, arising from her chair out of sheer excitement. Indeed, she had known about the meteor shower occurring over Equestria on this very day months ago, and had since then been mentioning it to her parents on every possible occasion.
Watching these had become sort of a family tradition for the three of them, really. There was a special place way out in the desert where the three would always go to see it; a special rock, of sorts, as the desert would have clear skies virtually all the time, allowing for an undisturbed vision. The elevated position would protect them from all the creepy crawlers haunting the desert at night.
According to the snippets of dialogue she had gathered up from conversations between her parents, the two had come there pretty often during their college times, sometimes even going so far as to say it was ‘their special rock’. Needless to say, the filly felt more than honored that the two had decided to bring her there and include her in this tradition as well, turning it from their special place into their family’s special place.
To her very disappointment, however, her parents had regretfully informed her that they both would have to attend an important conference in Manehattan that day, and would have to head out right after breakfast on her birthday.
Now, however…
“Yes!” she shouted out her joy, flapping her wings, hovering a good foot above her chair and pumping her hoof in triumph. “Yes! Sweet Celestia, yes!”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Jet said, smirking as he watched his daughter celebrate.
“Foup’f on, folkf!” Delta Vee said as she came walking from the kitchen again, causing her daughter to interrupt her celebration and lower herself back onto her chair.
Delta had by now freed herself of her apron, and was carrying in her muzzle a…
Apogee gasped, her wings flaring out again.
A… a tart! Made of pancakes!
“Happy Birthday, Sweetheart,” Delta said softly as she set the large plate down on the table in front of her daughter, ruffling up her mane. “Enjoy.”
The birthday filly nodded silently, her look focused on the truly amazing construct in front of her. Indeed, it seemed to consist of various layers of pancakes, held together by layers of marmalade in between, and topped with powdered sugar and thirteen burning candles.
“Wow…” she mouthed, a little dumbfounded. One thing she had to give her mother – if she put her mind to something, she really could create some pretty awesome things.
That caused her to crack a smile as she thought back to the last science fair where Delta had actually taken a whole week off from work to help Apogee with her project – contrary to the originally planned baking soda volcano, Apogee had ended up building a functioning rocket engine, not least thanks to some help from above.
“Thought you’d like it,” Delta said with a smirk as she sat down at the table as well, opposite to Jet.
“Are you kidding?” her daughter asked with wide eyes. “Who doesn’t like pancakes? Besides…” she spread out her forelegs, supporting her next words with both of her hooves, “a tart… made of pancakes? That’s like… two great things combined into something even greater!” she proclaimed with shining eyes. “Thanks mom!”
“Thank your Dad,” Delta said with a light smirk. “He came up with that idea. I was just the executive minion.”
“Come on, don’t sell yourself short,” Jet shot back, grinning as well. “I don’t think I could’ve stacked the pancakes like this.”
“Pfft…” Delta put him off with a casual flick of her hooves. “Simple physics, really. Once you’ve figured out the center of gravity of these things, you could stack them all the way up to the moon.”
Apogee’s eyes began to shine at the thought of a pancake-tower reaching up to the moon, but she caught herself as her eyes caught sight of the candles still burning atop her birthday cake, and by the time her father gently invited her with the words “Come on, make a wish.” Apogee had already closed her eyes and taken a deep breath.
Only that… she really didn’t know what to wish for.
She had a great, loving family, awesome friends, good grades in school… so what else was there to ask for?
She thought for a moment, then nodded to herself and puckered her lips, getting ready to make her wish come true.
There was one thing she could wish for.
She leaned back in her chair.
Because if she already had everything she wanted, there was only one more thing she could hope for.
She took another long breath, hearing her parents encourage her.
She wished for a healthy future for both herself and her family.
She leaned forward, leveling her mouth with the candles.
And for things to stay just as great as they were.
Because with a family like this…
Finally, she opened her mouth, extinguishing all the candles in one strong blow.
There really was nothing else she could ever ask for.
Yeah, with a family like this…
Apogee looked to the side, her head lazily leaning against her hoof, her gaze coming to rest on the family photo hung at the wall next to her in an unnatural 45 degree-angle.
…she really didn’t need any enemies.
Taking this photo in the first place had taken about half a year alone spent on planning, mostly because her mother had always made up excuses as to why she couldn’t make it to their photo call. When she had finally showed up, she had – opposite to Jet Stream’s requests, and probably with the sole purpose of going on his nerves – come wearing her oil-stained vest from the junkyard, creating quite the strong contrast to the collar-tie-combination her ex-coltfriend had been wearing.
The photo itself showed her frowning into the camera, her look making it clear just how little she cared about these kinds of things, and how badly she wanted to be back at the junkyard – with a cold beer, preferably. Jet Stream’s pose on the photograph made it quite clear how little he approved of his ex’s ’I don’t give a damn’-look, looking over at her instead of the camera with a slightly frustrated frown.
Only Apogee seemed to look genuinely happy in the shot, sitting between her parents and gazing into the camera with a beaming smile – although, try as she might, she couldn’t remember if she was genuinely happy that day, or if she had just put on that smile to have at least somepony look happy in their family photo.
“Are you kidding me!?” the voice of her mother snarling caused Apogee to look up and turn her head. Sitting opposite to each other on the lightly decorated table were her two parents, doing what apparently they could do best: arguing. “I could build a damn rocket in my sleep! Hell, I actually did that once!”
“Stacking three rocks on top of each other and making rocket-noises with your mouth does not count as building a rocket!” Jet Stream countered, frowning back at his ex.
“How do you know, huh?” Delta Vee replied, cocking an eyebrow.
Jet Stream shook his head. “I was there, for Celestia’s sake. You were drunk and trying to impress me with it.”
“S-shut up,” Delta snapped, turning her head away in defiance. She reached into the pocket of her trademark vest, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
“Can you not!?” Jet Stream barked as she put a cigarette in her mouth, ready to light it up, but then rolled her eyes.
“Oh boo-flippin’-hoo,” she snapped, spitting out the cigarette and putting her lighter back. “Why do you even care, huh?”
“It’s my home we’re in,” Jet defended himself. “Besides, our daughter is sitting right over there. I asked you to not smoke around her.”
“Yeah yeah,” she put him off, shaking her head and instead reaching for the plastic cup filled with cola standing on the table in front of her. She had already declared her disapproval about the lack of alcoholic beverages earlier.
“Uh, so…” Apogee hesitantly spoke up, attempting to start up some form of conversation, “Mom?”
The cyan mare turned her head, her red eyes looking her daughter over with that trademark frown that adorned her face most of the time.
“Anything… new?” Apogee asked a bit awkwardly, “You know… any new projects or… stuff?”
Delta made a face. “Nothing your father hasn’t taken from me yet, no.”
“Mom!” Apogee chimed in slightly annoyed.
“Come on, really?” Jet Stream sighed, casting a sharp glance at her.
“Hey, that’s what happened,” Delta said with a disinterested shrug, directing her attention to her plate, picking up her fork and idly stabbing the remains of her cake lying on it.
“Do you really wanna go down that road again?” Jet asked, rolling his eyes. “I already told you, I…”
His words seemed to fade away as Apogee drowned the two out, looking away.
Well…
She had gotten a gift voucher from her dad, some savings bond from her mom, the mandatory argument between her parents, and a cake that… well…
Her gaze lingered on the cake in front of her – a cheap, ready-made marble cake from a grocery store. Heck, she couldn’t even tell if it was from her mother or father, as both of them seemed equally likely to get her one of those, either due to a lack of time or a lack of interest, respectively.
Yup, just another birthday for Apogee. Not too different from its fifteen predecessors, really.
She sighed, resting her head on her hoof again as the increasingly heated argument between her parents filled the room.
By Celestia, what she’d do to change places with that Apogee from her dream right now.
Biting her lip and focusing, she closed her eyes, attempting to drift off again and change places with dream-Apogee, but at least by the time her mother began to raise her voice, she knew that none of this would be happening.
She was condemned to sit here, listening to and watching the two go at each other’s throats for… whatever reason they had dug out this time.
Really, she could barely hear them anymore at this stage, their voices seeming to fade into one big blur as Apogee tilted her head to the side, tiredly watching as their argument got more intense, watching her mother’s eyes widen, her father slam his hoof on the table, her mother baring her teeth… and so on.
She let her eyes drift shut, her mind desperate to bring up images to jump-start her phantasy about this perfect world she had been in earlier. She pictured herself savoring her mother’s awesome, delicious pancake-pie, finally getting to unwrap her present, or watching the meteor shower together with her… her…
“Hey kid!”
Her mother’s raspy voice caused Apogee to snap out of her thoughts, just as a new thought had popped up in her mind.
“Uh… what?” she asked, shaking her head and looking back to where her mother was focusing her, leaning over the table. Their argument had ended for whatever reason, although Apogee couldn’t shake the thought that the knocked-over cola lying on the table in front of her mother had something to do with it – looking at the deep frown on Jet Stream’s face, who was trying to clean up the mess with some kitchen tissues, that seemed like a reasonable option.
“Could you please tell your father that putting pineapple on a pizza is nothing short of a crime against nature?” she snarled, narrowing her eyes as her look shot over to her ex-coltfriend for a second. “That’s not a pizza, that’s degeneracy.”
“What, pineapples not good enough for you?” Jet snapped back, by now having climbed onto the table in his endeavor to contain the spreading puddle of soft drink. All the while Delta was sitting in front of him, seeming completely detached. “Diet Coke isn’t good enough for you, pineapples aren’t good enough for you – is there anything in this world that’s good enough for you?”
“Maybe I just don’t want any damn fruits on my pizza!” Delta snarled back, pulling up her nose. “Fruits belong in a fruit salad, not on a pizza.”
“Well, you do seem to like them when they’re fermented and served in a bottle,” Jet countered swiftly, finally giving the tabletop a final wipe and tossing the soaked tissues into a trashcan standing ready in a corner. He had either failed to notice or simply didn’t want to see that Apogee’s poor excuse for a birthday cake was now completely soaked with diet coke and just about ready to be tossed as well. “Isn’t that so?” he asked, casting a provocative glare at his ex as he wiped his wet hooves at the carpet.
“Oooh you got something to say?” Delta asked menacingly, her eyes narrowing as she jumped up from her chair, tilting it over in the process and causing it to clatter to the floor. “Well, say it! I’m right here!” She spread her forelegs out, her eyes widening even further, “Come on, say it!”
“Cut it out,” Jet Stream snarled, making a face as well. “Our daughter is right over there. It’s her birthday, for Pete’s sake!”
“That’s never bothered you in the past now, has it?” Delta affirmed, baring her teeth again. “I swear, if I had one bit for all the times you’ve-”
“Stop!” Finally, it seemed the birthday girl had found her voice again. Standing on the dinner table, her hooves soaked in remains of diet coke and cheap cake, she stretched out a hoof, interrupting the arguing ex-partners.
“There’s… something I wanna say,” Apogee proclaimed, taking in a long breath to reassure herself. She only had this one shot, so she better made it count.
To her relief, the two had stopped their arguing, although it might have just been due to the fact that she was standing on the table right now.
“I know I’m asking both of you to act civilized on my birthday every year, and you always go at each other’s throats anyway, but…” she paused, needing a second to get her words out ready.
Already, she could see the reaction on her parents’ faces. Namely, her mother rolling her eyes and turning her nose, and her father looking away with an abashed frown.
“I…” she stuttered, “T-there’s a meteor shower supposed to occur next Sunday. I… I wanted to see it… w-with you guys… Both of you.”
Silence filled the following moments as two sets of questioning eyes came to rest on her.
She swallowed, feeling unreasonably nervous all of a sudden. It had been a rather spontaneous thought, really. She had read about an upcoming meteor shower about a week ago, and had thought about visiting her mother that night to watch it from the roof of her caravan. Involving Jet Stream had crossed her mind once or twice, but she had always put it off as wishful thinking.
But more importantly, the idea of Jet and Delta watching meteor showers together during their happier times as a couple wasn’t just a figment of her phantasy. Her parents had never officially taken her out for it for obvious reasons, but she vaguely remembered her mother slurring something like this at her several years ago when she had once again come home drunk off her face. Apogee was sure she would have forgotten about such a seemingly unimportant detail of their past, but her daydream earlier seemed to have picked up on this buried memory somehow.
And based on the looks on their faces, a remotely similar process was happening in the minds of their parents, as both their faces went blank for a few moments, seeming to have trouble processing what their daughter had just proposed, let alone finding an answer to it.
Eventually, it was Jet who first found his voice again, as he quickly shook his head, freeing himself from whatever trance-like state his mind had been in, and carefully began, “Uh, that’s a… a nice idea, sweetie, but… I really don’t think it’s going to work.”
“Yeah,” Delta chimed in decidedly, shaking her head. “Not gonna happen, kiddo.”
“B-but…” Apogee stuttered, a little dumbfounded as she felt the ground being pulled from underneath her. “I… was just thinking… you know, with you two going there when you were younger and-”
“How the hell do you know that!?” Delta snapped suddenly, cutting her daughter off and shooting forward on her chair, before her head spun toward her ex-coltfriend, “You told her, didn’t you!?”
“I didn’t!” Jet quickly defended himself, seeming equally surprised about the sudden revelation. “We said we’d never talk about it, remember?”
That caused the cyan mare to stare at him in silence for a moment or two, seeming to gauge whether he was telling the truth or not. However, her head turned as Apogee spoke up.
“You… you told me, mom.” Apogee explained hesitantly, “It was a few years ago. I was sleeping at your place, you came home drunk and sorta just…” she shrugged, “started telling stories of how things used to be with the two of you. You were… pretty emotional then.”
Jet looked at his ex-marefriend as their daughter laid out the story, watching her eyes narrow, her face turn red, and her mood seemingly go from bad to abysmal.
Not wanting to escalate things further, Jet decided to step in before his ex could say something. “You… you know, sweetie. I’m sorry, but this just isn’t going to work. Yes, we used to watch meteor showers together back in the day, but both of us have…” he made a face, “moved on since then, and I just don’t think any of us would be enjoying a trip like this – neither me, nor your mother, and least of all you…”
“Exactly,” Delta spat out, a little too bitterly for Jet’s taste. “Like your father said, that thing’s in the past now.” She turned her head away, her face darkening. “And there’s nothing that makes me wanna think back to that time.”
Apogee remained silent for another moment, letting her father’s words sink in, then gave a sigh and lowered her head. “It’s fine. I mean… it was just an idea, but…” she shook her head, “nevermind. It’s fine.”
She bit her lip, already hearing her father give a sigh of relief and her mother turn her head away with a grunt, but then could feel her anger rise.
Why had they said no? Why couldn’t they just grant her this single wish for once!? For Celestia’s sake, she never even asked much for her birthday, now that she had made one sincere wish in years, and they had declined her? Just like that? No contemplating, no talking, just a quick, clear, and – in her opinion – utterly unfounded no!?
“Actually, no. It’s not fine!” she said, raising her head and looking at her parents whose attention quickly shifted back to her again. “I’m fed up!” she declared, feeling her emotions boil up. “I’m bucking sick of it!”
“Language, young lady!” she heard her father pipe up, but she wasn’t having any of it!
“No!” she shot back without hesitation, gaining a raised eyebrow even from her mother, “I just wanted this one thing. One Celestia-damned thing! A normalday with my normal family! Is that too much to ask for?”
Jet Stream bit his lip, looking a little abashed himself. “Apogee, honey, you need to understand-”
“No!” she cut him off, standing up on her chair. “Why can’t you two act like normal parents for once!?” she snapped. This wasn’t even so much about the meteor shower anymore, but instead about the thought that her parents wouldn’t even try to spend a normal day with her – a realization that only served to fuel her anger further.
“Look kid, we’re not trying to-”
“No!” Apogee cut her mother off again, shaking her head, then lowering it and giving a sigh as her anger slowly gave way to frustration. “Just… just stop it, alright?” she let herself sink into her chair again. “It was stupid of me to ask. Just… just forget I said anything at all.”
As she lowered her head and her words faded away, silence filled the half-heartedly decorated dining room of Jet Stream’s penthouse. An oppressing, uncomfortable, breath-taking silence that seemed to drag on for hours.
Apogee didn’t know what to say or do; she didn’t want to know! She just… didn’t want this anymore!
“Hey Apogee,” It took a few minutes until the silence was broken by Jet Stream speaking up. The filly idly raised her head, clearly lacking any motivation to see how her father was attempting to straighten out the situation now.
“You… you know I had this dream last night, where I dreamt I was a muffler.” he said, somewhat insecurely.
His daughter looked at him in silent confusion, tilting her head to the side, a touch of annoyance on her face.
“I woke up pretty exhausted!”
Apogee looked in silence at her dad, who forced out a brief, insecure chuckle at his jest. The filly had no idea what he was trying to pull off here, and frankly, she wasn’t too keen on finding out.
“Alright, how about this…” Jet started over, nervously clearing his throat. Delta slowly turned his head toward him, eyeing him with a glance similar to that on their daughter’s face. “Two peanuts were walking down the street…”
Again, both his daughter and ex-marefriend were looking at him in silence, their eyebrows raised, now more in confusion than legitimate annoyance, as if they still weren’t quite understanding what was going on…
“One was a salted!”
The stallion seemed to get somewhat restless as, once again, his attempts at a joke were met with nothing but awkward silence.
He gave a brief sigh, shaking his head, then made another, less enthusiastic attempt. “Alright. Last one, I promise.”
Apogee watched her mother turn her head away with an annoyed sigh, already pulling out her pack of cigarettes again.
“Hey Apogee, do you know why you should never trust atoms?”
The filly frowned lightly, beginning to feel a little sorry for her dad as he swallowed again.
However, before he could proceed with his joke, he was cut off by his ex-marefriend who, cigarette already in mouth, turned toward him with a frown.
“Look, chump,” she said bitterly, the cigarette causing her words to sound a little muffled, “I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve with those blockbusters, but if you wanna freeze me out, just say so. I’ll leave.”
At that, the stallion frowned as well, slowly turning his head toward her. Barely opening his mouth and in a tone which he hoped was inaudible to their daughter who had resumed to listlessly poke the cake on the plate in front of her, he hissed, “I’m trying to cheer up our daughter, alright? Don’t you think we’ve ruined enough of her birthdays?”
“Hrmph.” Delta grunted, turning away from him and shaking her head. She reached for the lighter in her chest pocket, but hesitated, remaining motionless for a moment or two.
Then, seeming to come to a conclusion, she spat out the cigarette and turned back toward her daughter sitting at the other end of the table and drably resting her head on her hoof.
“Hey kid…” she said, reaching a hoof into an inside pocket of her oil-stained vest and pulled out a small, slim silver jar, “Wanna see something cool?”
Again, the filly idly raised her head, her enthusiasm seeming even weaker than before as she watched her mother unscrew the jar’s cap
“What the…?” Apogee heard her father who had, until then, looked to the side with a somewhat lost gaze, ask with a sudden indignation, “Delta, is that a flask? I asked you not to bring any alcohol with you!”
But the cyan mare successfully ignored her ex as she shot another one of these half-serious looks at her daughter and, in a somewhat conspiratory tone, said, “Watch this.”
Before Jet could make any more comments, Delta had already opened the flask and aligned it with her mouth, emptying it all in one pull, her cheeks swelling.
Apogee made a face, wondering since when her mother made such a big deal out of getting wasted in front of her family, but felt her eyes widen as her mother tossed the now empty flask to the side, reached a hoof into the chest pocket of her vest and pulled out her lighter, lining it up with her mouth and igniting the flame.
“Delta, what are you-”
FWOOOOOOSH
A giant explosion of fire filled out the empty space above the dining table for a second or two. Apogee’s wings flared out with surprise, her heart skipped a beat, and she could feel her eyes begin to shine at the sight of the enormous fireball erupting from Delta Vee’s mouth.
The fire burned for a second, two at most, then died away as quickly as it had ignited. Apogee felt herself fighting for breath for a few seconds, although she wasn’t sure if it was because of genuine surprise or because the fire had burned all the oxygen in the room.
Again, a few seconds of silence followed, although this kind of silence felt entirely different from that one before. Before it had felt uncomfortable and oppressing, now it just felt… awestruck.
Once again, it was Jet Stream’s turn to break it, as he arose from his chair, giving his ex an utterly outraged glare.
“Are you fucking insane!?” he got up off his chair, yelling at Delta, who merely gave a dry grin, wiping the remains of whatever alcohol she had had in her flask from her muzzle.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she replied with a cocky smile, storing her lighter back in her chest pocket, “it’s not a real party without some fireworks.”
“Fireworks!?” Jet shot back, his eyes widening, “You could have set the goddamn house on fire! Do you have any idea how stupid-”
“Woooow.” He fell silent as their daughter finally opened her mouth, her wings still spread out in sheer amazement, her eyes wide and still shining with a certain sparkle in them. “That was…” she lowered her head for the first time since her mother’s little stunt, looking at her two parents with her still beaming face, “Awesome!”
That finally prompted a brief chuckle from her mother. “Thanks, kid.” She leaned back on her chair, crossing her forelegs. “Took me a while to get it right. Thought you might like it though. Guess there’s a little bit of pyro in you as well,” she said with a wink. “I’ll teach you how to do it someday.”
“Are you… are you being serious right now?” Jet Stream asked, his right eye twitching ever so slightly, “You’re inciting our fifteen year old-”
“Sixteen!” Apogee pointed out decidedly, already sounding a good bit more cheerful than before.
“Our sixteen year old,” Jet corrected himself seamlessly, shaking his head, “daughter to play with fire?”
“Hey it did the job, didn’t it?” Delta said with a smirk, leaning back even further and resting her hooves behind her back. Lightly nodding her head into the direction of her daughter, she added, “Cheered her up just fine. Better than any of your jokes.”
“B-but that’s not…” Jet Stream wanted to argue, but then cut himself off, his face scrunching up.
However, he was quickly distracted as his daughter spoke up again, much to his surprise.
“Dad?” she asked, her eyes raised towards the ceiling.
Jet turned back to face their daughter, who was still looking up at where Delta’s fireball had filled the air mere moments ago – as Jet would find out only later, she was actually looking at the scorch marks her mother’s little stunt had left on the formerly pearly white ceiling.
She lowered her head, looking at her father with a face that already looked a good bit more cheerful than before. “Why can’t I trust atoms?”
It took the stallion a few moments to understand what she meant, and a few more seconds to realize that she was being serious and not just trying to show him up in front of is ex.
“Well…” Jet began, feeling a thin smile form on his face as he prepared the punchline.
“They make up everything!”
Slowly, gradually, Apogee could feel the corners of her mouth curl into a grin. Seconds later, she was chuckling lightly, then laughing out loud, up to the point where her head was turning red and she had to support herself against the table to not fall over from her chortling.
“That’s a good one, Dad,” she said over her snorts, fighting for breath.
“H-hehe. Yeah…” Jet agreed, hesitantly joining in to his daughter’s chirping laughter as well, although he couldn’t help but to let out an intense sigh of relief.
It took Apogee almost half a minute to finally calm down again. When she did, her head was crimson, and she was gasping for breath. She didn’t quite know why she had lost it so badly – maybe it was a bit of pity for her father who had been… well… trying. Maybe the joke had really been this good.
Or maybe it was the simple and basic fact that, regardless of whether Delta was impersonating a flamethrower or Jet was cracking his best, worst dad-jokes, they weren’t fighting while doing it. Maybe they had seen that their bickering was upsetting their daughter, and had silently agreed to put their argument aside, if only for a moment, to try and cheer her up with… whichever method they deemed most appropriate.
But regardless of what had caused it, the fact remained that, right now, Apogee was grinning from ear to ear, only slowly catching her breath from laughing so hard. Her father was looking back at her, relief written over his face, while Delta had put her cigarettes away again and turned back toward the rest of her family – maybe it was wishful thinking, but Apogee was sure she had even seen the ghost of a smile flash over her mother’s face as the filly had broken into her laughing fit.
And really, could she ask for more? It was her birthday, her parents were with her, were – at least for the moment – not fighting for once and… really, she never thought she’d be saying this, but she was having a genuinely good time.
So why question it?
With that conclusion in mind, the birthday filly finally ended her heavy laughing fit with a sigh, shook her head and focused her mother. “Mom?”
Delta looked up and at her daughter, a look of light surprise on her face.
“Can you show me another one of those tricks? Those flames were…” she felt her eyes widen, face lighting up again, “Pretty.”
The older mare looked at her in silence for a moment, then smirked. “Sure thing, kid. We better do it outside next time though.”
“Sure!” Apogee said excitedly, already wanting to get up off her chair, but held herself back, remaining seated for now. "But first…” she turned her head, focusing her father who had watched the conversation with a tad of worry on his face, “Dad?”
He raised an eyebrow, seeming a bit surprised as well.
“Got another one of those knee-slappers? I could do with a good joke,” she turned her head to the side for just a second, focusing Delta. “And I’m sure mom could, too.”
Jet looked between the two mares for a few moments, then shrugged lightly. “Uh… sure.”
“Alright, this one’s the best one I know.” He straightened himself up on his chair, getting ready to crack a joke which Apogee knew she would be laughing at, regardless of its quality.
“So, a horse comes into a bar…”