The Wanderer's Wife

Chapter Seven

To say that Golden Brown’s was a family farm would be both a truth and a lie, Sepia learned. Though Autumn Breeze’s company that he lived with in his home were related to him- this company being his mother, Cherry Blossom, his father, Haystack, and his twin sister, Bluebell- they seemed more like friends than family. All of them seemed to be on the same level as each other, referring to each other by names instead of titles like ‘mom’ and ‘sir’.

After being introduced to the family, Sepia, Starflash and Honeysuckle were quickly shown the way to the washroom so they could dry themselves off. Privacy was not a luxury for them in the cramped room - even though Autumn advertised it as ‘cosy’- though none of the ponies would let themselves freeze over for the sake of taking turns. Sepia and Honeysuckle finished together long before Starflash; the pegasus watched him as he slowly dried himself with a most curious look on his face, his eyes slightly wide and a curl at the corner of his lips. To her, it looked as if he was trying- and failing- to his keep his best poker face as he brushed his mane into a neat arrangement with his towel.

Once they were ready, the three ponies descended to the dining room. Lunch had been laid out for both them and the entire family, a variety of veggies, fruits and desserts all cooked in their own special ways into pies, cakes and other pastries which Sepia had never seen before. Every dish was packed onto the top of the creaking, gnawed wooden table that Autumn and the family was sitting around, the sight of such a feast making Sepia’s mouth water and her stomach rumble, but she, along with Starflash and Honeysuckle, was reluctant to approach the food. Autumn gave the three of them a cheery smile.

“Well don’t be shy!” he said, removing his hat and throwing it, with perfect aim, onto the tip of the pillar at the end of the stair railing. He ushered Sepia and the other’s over. “There’s plenty here for all of us and the pigs, and don’t think you’ve got to make pigs of yourselves to please us. Cherry loves cookin’ and the pigs love eatin’!”

Sepia smiled and nodded, taking up her seat alone at the free end of the table. Honeysuckle sat next to Bluebell, the creamy-cyan pegasus offering her a plate of apple pie without saying anything. This left one empty spot to Autumn’s left, which Starflash stared at for several awkward seconds before he was invited over.

“I-I’m sorry,” he stammered, saying nothing more as he gingerly took his place. Autumn shot him quick, friendly glance; Sepia thought that she saw Starflash blush for a fraction of a second. She grinned to herself.

“So tell us,” Haystack said loudly after everypony had taken some food, “what brings you three to Golden Brown’s today?”

Sepia finished her mouthful of apple pie, wiping her muzzle before answering. “Well, we were going to Piata as a group for...” She paused, looking at Honeysuckle. The earth pony’s face had a disapproving expression spread on the half that was turned to her, and she thought about how much this look would have annoyed her normally. This time, she got Honeysuckle’s message.

“...for a vacation.”

“Oh, is that so?” Cherry said, wiping away some pie crumbs from her light pink chin. “If you three came from Geldingstone, then did you decide to walk the whole way? Or—”

“I think we should have told you this earlier,” Honeysuckle interrupted, “but... our train was stopped suddenly and we just barely managed to escape.”

“Escaped?” Autumn asked. “From what, boredom? You folks bored when you’re not movin’ around?”

 Honeysuckle’s face remained sullen. “Actually, when the train suddenly stopped, the other ponies were taken outside and... I don’t know. They just vanished after we listened in on whoever was there. I think they were kidnapped.”

The family gasped together, Autumn leaning upwards towards her. “Kidnapped?! You’re pullin’ our legs, Miss Honeysuckle! Who’d want to kidnap a bunch of ponies?”

Honeysuckle hesitated. “Well... Starflash told me that he saw some creatures standing over the ponies when they were gathered outside. We were hidden behind some trees at a distance and I told him to take a look. He said they stood on two legs and had hunched backs, and--”

“You’re serious?!” Haystack exclaimed, making Starflash flinch. He dropped the piece of pie he was holding, turning to the blue unicorn. “Are you positive? Did’ya see their faces?”

Starflash blinked. “Oh, uh... not really. There were maybe five or six of them though.”

Haystack jumped from his seat, rushing over to the front door. “Cherry, they’re up to somethin’. First they’re prowlin’ in the fields and now they’re out kidnappin’ ponies! You three should have said somethin’ as soon as you walked through the door.” He grumbled to himself as he ran into the kitchen, taking a jacket and throwing it onto his body. “Chances are they’ve found the train, but the Royal Guard’s ain’t exactly bright. They won’t know that those dogs are back...”

Before anypony could stop him, Haystack had stormed out of the house and slammed the front door shut, the sound of galloping being heard outside over the silent group of ponies left in the dining room. Nopony moved until the noise had faded away, leaving everypony looking at each other awkwardly in turn. Cherry cleared her throat, everypony looking at her with the same confused expression.

“Forgive him, dears,” she said, addressing Starflash, Sepia and Honeysuckle, “but there have been a number of thefts from the fields lately like ears of corn and cabbages. Haystack has kept his eye out... he says that he sees something called a ‘diamond dog’ now and again, lurking about the crops. I tell him not to worry, but he’s insistent on making his troubles known at the outpost not far from here, until somepony puts a stop to them. But it seems that the Royal Guard has better things to do than to help us deal with a hungry diamond dog...”

Autumn dipped his hoof into the selection of food again, picking out a piece of vegetable bake. “Speakin’ of hungry, we shouldn’t worry ‘bout any of that now. Everythin’ will be sorted soon.”

Cherry gave him a serious look. “Come now, Autumn. This is very serious, and it’s quite irresponsible to say something like that.”

“Yeah, but what can we do? We’re all sittin’ here with lunch gettin’ cold and dad’s already out reportin’ it, so...”

Sepia stayed silent, wondering just what exactly a ‘diamond dog’ was. She decided not to ask, instead taking another piece of pie and staring about the room. She began to think about why the farm carried the name Golden Brown’s, her eyes drifting and taking in the golden-yellow walls and aging willow furniture. The worn wooden ceiling beams and brownish-red ornaments of ponies and farm animals dotted about the tables and the mantelpiece above the fire, next to where everybody sat. She had the feeling that autumn had invaded the home, settling until the winter. Autumn Breeze cleared his throat.

“Well, let’s jus’ handle this lil’ problem right in front of us... too much food, too few ponies!” he said cheerily. “So, why don’t you folks tell us about yourselves then?”

Sepia saw Starflash tense up slightly, and she intervened. “Well, I’m a historian for the Geldingstone museum. I research artifacts and items that come in. Starflash is a tour guide for the astronomy department for the museum as well, and Honeysuckle...”

She paused, her mind spinning with possible job titles for her.

A gossip. A pest. A nuisance. A two-face. A malicious, evil, mean, sneaky--

“A flowerpony,” Honeysuckle said, making Sepia blink as she carried on eating her meal in silence. Autumn nodded slowly, stuffing the whole slice of pastry into his mouth and chewing slowly. Swallowing loudly, he gave a hearty belch that was probably meant to compliment his mother’s cooking skills, but was met with a disapproving eye all the same. Sepia remembered how Starflash always gave that excuse whenever he did the same in her company; the pegasus glanced at him, noticing him smiling slightly as he began to eat faster.

“A flowerpony?” Cherry said. “So you must know a lot about the land and how to grow things then, am I right?”

“I... well...” Honeysuckle shook her head. “No, not really. I only only know about flowers... little things like that.”

“I see... That’s a shame. We were thinking of planting ourselves an apple orchard, but we really don’t know where the best spot is for the trees. Imagine that, a bunch of farmers not knowing where to sow their seeds!”

“Well, none of us really know anything about farming, so we can’t help you there,” Sepia said. “We don’t really have time to learn anything about farming either. I’m sorry, but--”

“Hold on a sec, Sep!” Starflash said, a wide smile on his face. “Maybe we do have time!”

“Come again?” Autumn said, giving him a curious look. Sepia raised her brow, baffled by Starflash’s sudden statement.

“Well,” he explained, “we wouldn’t get to Piata until nightfall on foot, so I’m thinking that if you guys could give us all a ride there on your cart or something tomorrow morning, we could help you out on the farm in return!”

His suggestion was met with silence as all ponies stared at him. Bluebell and Cherry Blossom could only blink, Sepia almost looked shocked and enraged and Honeysuckle gave him a long, thin frown. Only Autumn gave him a wide grin.

“That’s a good idea if I’ve ever heard one!” he said. “Most folks are a lil’ workshy when we cook up a feast for them, but we don’t mind either way. Since you seem so keen, I guess we can’t stop you even if we wanted to. Three extra sets of hooves will sure come in handy!”

“Autumn, please,” Cherry said, turning to Starflash. “There’s no need to feel like you have to work for a favour, dear. We’d be more than happy to take you all to Piata in the morning and for you to stay for the night.”

Starflash shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t feel right. Besides, I’m sure there are a couple of messy jobs you’d like to have taken care of without having to get dirty yourself.”

“They save those jobs for me!” Autumn said. “We could get ‘em done together, if you’d like--”

“Yes!”

Autumn flinched at Starflash’s outburst, and the unicorn quickly laughed and nodded. “I mean sure, I’d love to help you out there.”

“Alright then,” Cherry said. “If your friends don’t mind helping out... Honeysuckle, do you buck a lot?”

Honeysuckle looked up from from her empty plate. “What?”

“You know, bucking. Kicking hay bales onto carts and such? Ever done anything like that?”

“Oh!” Honeysuckle nodded. “Sure, I’ve kicked a lot of trees and other things before.”

“Perfect! You can help Bluebell out with piling up the hay bales near the pastures then. It’s tough work for just one pony, but since you’ll be there to take Haystack’s place the job should go smoothly.”

Sepia smiled slightly when she saw Honeysuckle’s lips flicker into a grimace for a fraction of a second. She wondered what job she’d be left with.

“Now then Sepia,” Cherry said, sighing as she waved her hoof over the top of the table, above the food and empty plates. “You’re going to help me by cleaning all of these dishes.”

“That’s it?” Sepia asked, her brow high. Cherry nodded, smiling sweetly at her as she collected the dirty china and stacked it up on the corner of the table.

“Of course! I can’t have you doing any heavy work with your... you know... your wing being as it is.”

Sepia was left silent, a blank look left on her face. She could only stare back at the light pink mare as the smile on her host’s lips remained. She glanced at Honeysuckle, reading a clear, cutting message from the earth pony’s calm and collected glare.

See what I mean? Useless...

“Oh... I understand your concern,” Sepia said quietly. “In that case, I’d be happy to help you with that.”

“Excellent!” Cherry chirped. “Now then, there’s much to be done before dinner, so everypony snap to it!”

Autumn and Bluebell nodded, darting from their seats and out of the front door. Starflash quickly followed, Honeysuckle slowly coming after him. They left Sepia sitting alone at the table, sighing as she looked at her crooked, deformed left wing.

Useless...

Starflash tried to keep his distance from the pig sty as Autumn slipped on his own hoof boots.The unicorn stood a good ten metres away from the wooden gate as he watched his partner get ready for work, a second set of four shoes near the latched side of the entryway that were waiting to be put on. Yet there was something, which he couldn’t figure out, that was stopping him.

He could only watch Autumn get ready with no particular look on his face as he tried to think about why he couldn’t go near. It wasn’t the foul stench of the pigs that he was to tend to, nor was it the thought of blisters from the boots or even the urge to nap after having a fill of the feast. He slowly began to walk, Autumn glancing up at him.

“You ever cleared out a pigpen before, Starflash?” he asked, adjusting his slipping hat with his booted hoof. Starflash shook his head.

“No, never. Is it hard?”

“Hard? Only if you’re not good at shovellin’. Pigs are the nicest of critters you’ll come across, but they’re awful messy and they don’t half stink!”

Nicest… Starflash thought. Yeah, that’s something good about him. Nicest and...

“I don’t mind the smell,” he said, levitating one of the boots towards him and slipping his hoof inside. Autumn wheeled a barrow with two shovels inside up to the gate. “In fact, I actually like it. Reminds me of my family, in a way.”

“Say what?” Autumn gave him a curious look. Starflash smiled at him, fitting on the rest of his boots.

“I had a pretty large family… well, a huge family actually. Fourteen brothers and sisters, my mom and dad, my grandparents and myself, all cramped together in the same house.” He gave a slight laugh at Autumn’s surprised yet amused look. “Of course, with that many kids fighting with each other, playing around outside and just being messy all the time, it was pretty frantic. Add to the fact that my mom really couldn’t keep up with who's bath time was when and then… well, you could tell just by the scruffy coats and the smell who’d bathed and who hadn’t.”

“Uh-huh,” Autumn said, scratching his head. “Fourteen brothers and sisters? How’d you cope with that many? All I’ve got is Bluebell, and she never says a word ‘cept when she wants to.”

“I kept myself to myself, I guess. I often just spent time outside the house looking for spots to set up my telescope, and then I would wait until the night to look at the stars. Oddly enough, that’s how I met Honeysuckle and Sepia.”

“Ohoho, I see,” Autumn said with a grin. “Used your brains and not those muscles to impress the ladies, eh?”

Starflash paused for a second. “My… Well, I guess I…” He bit his lip, sighing as he shook his head. “No. I’m not… I’ve never really liked them in that kind of way, even though they’ve been my best friends for years.”

“Oh. Well, is it another lucky mare?”

“No. At least, not a mare… that knows,” Starflash said, a flicker of happiness showing for just a fraction of a second that vanished almost instantly. “I’m a bit too nervous to tell her how I feel. I barely even know her.”

“Hmm…” Autumn gave him a reassuring look, smiling at him. “Well, why don’t you try to get to know her, then tell her how you really feel? I mean, it’ll only be embarrassin’ for a lil’ while, but who knows! Maybe it might go somewhere good. After all, who could resist such a handsome stallion like you?”

Starflash blushed a little. “Well, I don’t know about handsome but—“

He stopped dead, the flushing red colour in his cheeks drained for a pale blue as he blinked at Autumn. The earth pony  asked him what was the matter, but he didn’t even grunt or breathe to acknowledge him. All he could do was gulp as he began to sweat slightly.

“W-W-What did you say?!” he quickly stammered. Autumn raised his brow.

“I said who could resist such a handsome stallion… like…”

He trailed off completely, the two ponies staring at each other awkwardly for what seemed to be the longest ten seconds of Starflash’s life. His eyes darted left and right as he tried to look away, and Autumn cleared his throat as he fumbled about with his hat. Neither of them could say anything to each other until Autumn sighed heavily, giving Starflash a comforting smile.

“I’ve gotta ask, Starflash,” he said quietly, the unicorn looking at him meekly, “are you offended by me callin’ you handsome or somethin’? Like, does it sound weird comin’ from another guy?”

Starflash stared at the warm gentle look with wide eyes. He gave a quick, almost silent laugh. Then another. Then a longer, louder one. Soon, he was in roaring laughter as Autumn stepped back, looking as if he was on guard from his fit of giggles. Even if Starflash didn’t have a reason for his sudden joy, he now had one for why he couldn’t go near the gate before.

“Autumn…” His laughter died slowly as he wiped a tear away from his eye. “I have to be honest with you. You know how I should tell that mare I know how I feel? And have you noticed how I’ve been a little shy around you?”

Autumn nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

“Well… I’ve kind of been lying to you. There is somepony I like, but… Umm… Autumn, I actually think that you’re… well…”

Starflash gulped.

“…cute.”

“So Sepia, how’s working at that museum? How long have you been there?”

Cherry placed a small stack of recently washed and bone-dry dishes in the cupboard under the kitchen sink, dusting off her hooves as she asked her question. Sepia dipped another dirty beneath the tub of frothy, soapy liquid, taking a sponge to it as she thought.

“Oh I don’t know… At least five or six years, I think,” she replied, passing her dish to Cherry for drying and taking another one. “I took up a job therewith Starflash because it’s somewhere we loved visiting together when we were younger. He loved guiding me around the astronomy department, telling me about the planets and stars and stuff. Anyway, I began working as a librarian for the archives, but Mr Scroll made me a researcher when he found me investigating an exhibit that had been carelessly left on one of the bookshelves. He told me I had passion and enthusiasm.”

“And Starflash?” Cherry asked. “What does he do?”

“He’s still a tour guide after all these years. He loves making the night sky so entertaining with his on-the-spot songs and lively ways of explaining things, but I have no idea how he copes with being the centre of attention! Then again, I feel awkward with just one pony looking at me for any reason at all…”

“I suppose it takes a certain kind of pony for that,“ said Cherry. “What about Honeysuckle? She says she’s a flowerpony but she’s awfully quiet, just like my Bluebell.”

“Oh… She’s—“

Sepia stopped scrubbing the plate in the sink, staring at her own submerged hooves as she tried to stop Honeysuckle’s words coming back to her.

Some ponies are just born stupid, clumsy, useless and worthless…

But she couldn’t…

I’m just glad—

…quite…

you’re—

…do it.

one of them.

“She’s friendly enough,” Sepia said quietly, slowly passing her sponge over the plate again. “She’s… a little forward when she speaks, but she works hard and takes her love for flowers and—“

Starflash.

“—botany seriously. I haven’t known her for as long as I’ve Starflash though, and they knew each other long before I even met him…”

“I see,” Cherry said. She completed another stack of dried dishes by crowning the pile on the kitchen table with the last plate that Sepia gave to her. “Well, that’s that finished. Now, since I managed to finish most of the housework before you three arrived, how about we get the dinner started?”

She turned to Sepia as she closed the cupboard, her cheery smile fading as she saw the pegasus’ face; her lips were straight but quivering slightly, her eyes glistening.

“Is everything all right, Sepia?” Cherry asked her. She didn’t respond. She kept staring out of the window, her eyes seeing past Starflash and Autumn laughing and talking together and not even noticing Bluebell and Honeysuckle struggling to stack hay bales into a pile. Her eyes welled up as she felt a familiar pain.

It was coming from her broken wing.

“I-I’m sorry,” Sepia said, sniffling as she wiped her eyes.

“Hey, I’m sorry for what I said earlier… about your wing?” Cherry said in a comforting tone. “I was just concerned, that’s all. I’m sorry if I upset you.”

“No, I…” Sepia regained her composure, looking at Cherry seriously. “It’s just that talking about the past and how I met Starflash reminded me of my wing, and… I still can’t forget about what happened after so many years.”

A short silence lingered between them as Sepia gave a heavy sigh, looking out of the window once more.

“When I was a little filly,” she said, “all I loved to do was read. My mother owned her own bookshop when we still lived in Teralow, the underground town, so I grew up with everything from stories about knights and princesses and history books about ages gone by around me. I would spend hours reading about everything I could, getting up and picking out another book literally seconds after I’d finished one. Sometimes I would wake up with my face buried in the most fascinating novels, but I always loved history books the most. I loved learning about our own world both past and present, and I always tried to learn more whenever I could.”

“My dad though… He never liked me reading so much. He was the captain of the town guard… many a guardspony called him a hulking beast of a pegasus with a look of constant, pure hatred in his eyes, and a temper to match. He was always telling my mother about how I was wasting my life just sitting alone with nothing but books. He thought I should be outside, becoming stronger and discovering a world outside of fiction, but neither of those things appealed to me. I was happy the way I was.”

“But he wasn’t satisfied,” Sepia said, bitterness in her voice, “because I didn’t have my cutie mark then. All my classmates- most of them sons and daughters of my father’s garrison- all had theirs, but I was still a blank flank. My dad wanted a daughter he take pride in, but… I don’t know why he did it. Maybe he was just too anxious about me never getting one? I didn’t care though—“

“I’m sorry,” Cherry cut in, “but what did he do to you?”

“Oh…” Sepia sighed. “One day, he got into an argument with my mother. I listened in, hearing him telling her that he was sick of letting me just let the world fly right by my head without doing anything meaningful, and that it was her fault that I was so obsessed with… with letting him down. My mother just said to him that I loved my books, and there was nothing wrong with that.”

“He didn’t agree. He came into my room after he finished talking to her, telling me ‘It’s time you learned something useful for once. Get your things, we’re going to the surface.’ The land above the city was so exciting and fresh for a filly, so every chance I had to escape the dimness of Teralow was taken without a second thought.”

“I asked my dad where we were going, but he didn’t answer me as we took the brisk walk through the cobbled streets, the glow of the lamps above us flickering and pulsing gently. He just said, once we reached the steam-powered elevator to the surface, that we were heading for the cliffs overlooking Regalis Forest for my first flying lesson. I was pretty nervous when he said that, as any filly would be. I’d never used my wings before… I hadn’t even given them a flutter before then, so flying seemed like a huge step up. What use would flying have been in an underground city anyway?”

“We were both silent as we make the long walk to the cliffs, away from the entrance of the city… that’s pretty much just a giant cave where the elevator is. It took us maybe an hour to get there, neither of us saying anything until my dad trotted ahead of me, suddenly stopping at the top of the hill we were walking up. I quickly caught up with him, stepping back from where he was when I reached him and looked down.”

“We’d actually reached the cliffs. The gentle slope that we’d walked up to lead up to a rocky cliff face and a sheer drop to the forest below. I gulped at the impossible height of the outcrop, feeling sick just thinking about it.”

“My dad suddenly said ‘Sepia, I want you to learn how to fly the same way I did. I want you to—“

Sepia paused, taking a deep breath that stuttered with a sniffle as she wiped her eyes. “He told me to run and the cliff edge and flap my wings.”

“He… What?!” Cherry whispered her eyes wide. Sepia nodded once. “But that’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard!”

“I thought that too. I told him I couldn’t do it. I told him I was scared, but… but he just yelled at me! He started getting angry, demanding that I stopped acting like a coward and do it. He just kept growling at me when I refused, but I was so afraid that I had no idea what to do… I couldn’t believe that he was doing this to me, all for the sake of his stupid pride, his selfish notion of his own image and having a daughter that could do something ‘useful’, like he put it.”

“Sepia…” Cherry said. “I had no idea—“

“And you want to know what the worst part is?” Sepia snapped, tears falling from her eyes. “He called me a disappointment! He looked straight into my eyes and said that I was useless to him, leaving me behind as he walked back to town! He… There was something inside me that snapped. Something that made me run towards that cliff face. I ran as fast as I could, screwing my eyes shut and spreading my wings as far as I could! I prayed that the wind would carry me through the air! But... I…”

She could say no more, burying herself into Cherry’s hug as she was cradled by her. She let out great sobs as Cherry tried to console her, the earth pony stroking her mane gently while she whispered comfortingly in her ear.

“There there, Sepia. It’s not your fault. Don’t think for a second that you’re a coward or you’re useless. You’re helpful and kind, with two friends that I’m sure will follow you wherever you go. I’m sure those are all worth a heck a lot more than a father who wants to be proud of you for something that doesn’t even matter.”

“B-But…” Sepia said, forcing her words past her sniffles. “But… my wing… and I can’t fly or use magic or—“

“That’s right,” Cherry said. She looked Sepia in the eyes. “But being able to do any of that doesn’t make you any better. It’s not what you can do, but what you do do and letting yourself blossom because of that.”

Sepia blinked a few times, wiping away her tears. “Thank you,” she whispered with a smile, Cherry returning it. “I… I feel better after telling you about this. Only you and Starflash know.”

“You mean you’ve never talked to Honeysuckle about this? Why not?”

Sepia glanced out of the window; she thought she saw a spring-green mane disappear from view from the bottom of it. A stern look spread across her face as she stared at Honeysuckle, who was walking away from the house and glancing back when she was far away.

“She never bothered to ask about my wing,” Sepia said.