Generations-Chapter 10
Generations-Chapter 10Twilight swept the floor of the shop. She'd closed the business today, and Barnacle had helped her sort through the remaining merchandise and clean up.
She was sad to see the shelves so empty, and the chairs upside down on the tables, but she also realized that running the shop had been her way of hanging on to her parents. Now, she smiled to herself, she had something else to hang onto.
The Rosetta had been done for quite some time now, and she hadn't been back to the library in almost three weeks, but Barnacle had asked her to meet him there tonight. He said he had something for her, a surprise.
She found a pencil on the floor, and went to put it away. She changed her mind and grabbed a piece of paper and just started doodling. What could the surprise be? He had given no hints.
Before she knew it, then sun had set and she got up to light a lamp. She reached for her drawing. It was, of course, Barnacle. She admired her work. Though she had never considered herself a good artist, the drawing was a faithful representation of him.
She took the drawing upstairs and laid it on her nightstand. Next to it was the framed portrait of her parents and her as an infant outside their house.
She touched each of their faces, and hoped they were proud of her. She had no remorse; she knew she had done her best. Just because the bookshop failed didn't mean that she had. That was the kind of attitude her father always had. She picked up her diary and wrote for half an hour about the days events, and then quietly left the house.
She entered the library and found Barnacle waiting for her in the big chair. He rose when she came in. She trotted up to kiss him, but he stopped her. He pulled a book from off the chair and handed it to her upside down.
She looked at him quizzically. It was a large volume, leather bound. She turned it over and read the title: 'Rosetta, by Twilight'
She gasped and looked up at Barnacle, who was smiling ear to ear. She tossed the book on the table, threw her arms around him, and kissed him all over his face. She knocked him back down in the chair and thanked him over and over.
"You're welcome. I'm glad you like it," Barnacle laughed.
"I love it. What a great surprise!" She sighed. He held her in his arms a moment.
"Actually, I have something else for you." She looked at him in surprise. He shrugged it off, "It not nearly as big as the Rosetta though, just a minor little thing. Actually, you might not even be impressed with it after getting such a grand gift." He got up and casually walked over to one of the desks and picked up a small mahogany box. He slowly opened it to reveal a tiara. It was breathtaking, exquisite. It was platinum and had a single tear drop pearl hanging from it. "Will you marry me?" he asked on one knee.
"Oh Barnacle..." she reached out a hoof toward it, but pulled it back, almost in reverence. "It's beautiful."
"Is there an answer in there?" He teased.
She just smiled, "Yes." He took out the tiara and went to place it on her head, but she pulled back. "It's so perfect, I can't wear it. What if I brake it?"
His face fell in pretend disappointment. "Well, I was hoping you'd wear it for the second half of the surprise." He went to the library door and called someone. A middle-aged pony followed him in the room. "This is Starflower. He was recently hired as the court painter, and I've commissioned him to paint your portrait." Twilight's eyes grew wide and she started to shake her head. "Please Twilight, it can be your wedding gift to me."
Starflower continued for him, "I've already painted the background, and you would only sit for me for a week. Then it will take another day or two to make any finishing touches."
Twilight tried to protest, but the two of them wore her down, and in the end she relented.
The next morning, Sweetsong woke up and trotted down to breakfast. She was eager to see Waterfire this morning and to continue their conversation from last night. Perhaps he wasn't so bad after all. It's too bad she was leaving now that he was finally coming out of his shell. She dropped her suitcase at the foot of the stairs.
Waterfire had started eating without her. He looked up at her as she came down the stairs, and then looked back at his breakfast without saying anything. Sweetsong thought that was odd, but still tried to be cheerful.
"Good morning!" He just nodded. She took a plate and sat across from him. Not a word was spoken for a solid ten minutes. Sweetsong didn't understand; he'd been so communicative last night.
Waterfire finally broke the silence. "So you're all packed I see." It was not a question, but a statement, emotionless and rocklike as always.
"Yes..." Sweetsong said slowly, "I don't like to procrastinate."
"So I assume that means you'll be leaving early." Sweetsong looked straight at him, but he just glanced casually out the window.
"Perhaps we will." Sweetsong was furious. She knew if she said anything more than that, she would blow up at him. She got up from the table and walked outside to the porch. She paced back and forth, fuming. "What a jerk!" she shouted in thought, stomping her foot. "He's just like he always was, maybe even worse. He can't wait to get rid of me. I can't believe I thought kindly of him this morning. He doesn't deserve it." She was so frustrated that she had tears welling up in her eyes. She stuffed them back down; he didn't deserve those either.
She looked out over the beach and saw Wysteria and Bowtie coming up the path. She took a breath and collected herself quickly. But as soon as Wysteria came onto the porch, she knew something was wrong.
"Are you ok?" Sweetsong just nodded, and tried to brush it aside. "Have you been crying?"
"No, no really it's fine. I just miss home that's all."
"Oh," Wysteria paused and shuffled her feet, "I was actually hoping to talk to you about that..."
Sweetsong looked at her, and for the first time, noticed she wasn't packed. "What's going on?"
"Well," Wysteria smiled and looked at Bowtie, "Bowtie and I are getting married."
"Oh," Sweetsong was shocked, but she quickly gathered herself together. "Oh, great, congratulations!" She gave them each a big hug and slapped on a smile, trying her best to make it not look fake. It wasn't that she wasn't happy for her friend, but the timing was terrible.
Wysteria went on, "We were hoping you might stay for another two or three weeks. We'd have a quick wedding, and then go back to Dream Valley with you to introduce Bowtie to all our family and friends."
"I...I can't Wysteria. I don't want to miss your wedding, but I have to go." Wysteria nodded. As soon as she saw Sweetsong was crying because she missed home, she knew that's what the answer would be, but she wasn't angry. In fact neither pony was angry; they both felt guilty for seemingly abandoning the other. But that's just the kind of friendship they had, each worried more about the other than themselves.
"How are you going to get home?" Bowtie asked gently.
"I'll still rent a boat and go back via Jewel City, just how we came."
"No, you won't." Waterfire walked out onto the porch, having heard the conversation thus far from inside. Sweetsong frowned at him; who was he to tell her what to do? "I didn't like the idea of you going back by boat as it was, what with you getting as sick as you were last time. But now, you won't have anyone to handle the boat for you. You can't sail when you're so sick you can't stand up."
Sweetsong was fuming. In the back of her mind, she knew he was right, but she was still fuming. One minute, he couldn't wait to get rid of her, and now he was going to try to make her stay. Why? Just to torture her?
"Well, how do you propose she get home?" Bowtie asked.
"I'll take her in the hot air balloon. She didn't get sick when we took it up a few weeks ago. We won't even have to stop in Jewel City. We'll go due east straight to the valley."
Sweetsong finally spoke up, "That's really not necess..."
"It's really no trouble, and I'll be able to travel right back with it."
"Great then, it's settled." Bowtie added cheerfully. Sweetsong just rolled her eyes. 'Great' was not the word she would have used. At least on the island, she'd been able to spend the day with Wysteria, and watch the sunset by herself, and go to bed early if necessary. Now, she'd have to be with him the entire way back. No escaping a little basket.
They took off around noon, after a short and tearful goodbye. Waterfire busied himself with the controlling the heat and valves, and Sweetsong stared out at the horizon. They didn't speak for several hours.
In the late afternoon, the wind began to pick up from the north. Sweetsong wondered if it would blow them off course, but she said nothing. Waterfire knew what he was doing and she didn't want to insult him.
But the wind began to blow harder, and dark somber clouds moved in. Sweetsong's spirits fell even lower; she had been looking forward to watching the sunset from up here.
"I thought it was supposed to be clear today," Waterfire glanced at the clouds anxiously.
"Should we set it down?"
"I thought about that, but I don't know if we're still over the water or not." Sweetsong looked down. It was pitch black; impossible to tell. Waterfire continued, "If we go low enough to look at the landscape, we might pick up a cross current. We won't even know what direction we're going.
"Do you even know now what direction we're going?" Waterfire looked doubtful, but before he could answer, vivid lightning flashed near them. Sweetsong was startled and jumped closer to him. "This is not good!" She shouted over the roar of the thunder.
They held each other as the storm howled around them for almost an hour. It thundered loudly, and both ponies were terrified. There were several lightning strikes that seemed too close for comfort to their little balloon, but Sweetsong kept reminding herself that it was further away than it looked. She counted the seconds between the lightning and thunder, something her mother taught her to do as a child, but she still couldn't help but grit her teeth anxiously and huddle closer to Waterfire.
He had given up the controls entirely, and sat clinging to the bottom of the basket. He'd never flown in weather like this before, nor any adverse weather. He kept expecting the balloon to collapse above them, but surprisingly it held up well to the tempest. He knew they were way off course, but he rallied his spirits as the storm seemed to be letting up.
The lightning and thunder were now reduced to a quiet rain. The two ponies were both cold and wet as they rose from the basket floor. They looked around them at the darkness, and then at each other. Sweetsong breathed a sigh of relief, and Waterfire gave an encouraging smile.
Just then, one last bolt of lightning struck the balloon. The helium caught on fire, and the cords for the basket snapped. Sweetsong felt a jolt hammer her body, and they plummeted towards the earth.
Twilight's pencil sketch of Barnacle