Decades Lead to Every Day

Unlike her brother, who was back in Fillydelphia for the first time in three years, Limelight still has fresh memory of where everything in the city is. Trying to think like her brother, her first idea is to find the nearest place where a pony could be alone and undisturbed, and so she starts galloping to the nearest park.

In Fillydelphia, parks are only ever used as a place for young colts and fillies to play in during the day, or a quiet location for couples to go on a date in the evenings. Currently, it is void of both, leaving her with what appears to be a still, empty area of grass and trees surrounded by tall buildings.

“Winter?” she calls, looking around carefully. No movement. “Winter, stop hiding like a baby and get out here!” The goading doesn’t help. Sighing, she tries one more time. “Fine! I’m walking away now, and leaving you out here alone all night!”

When silence is still all that responds to her, she shakes her head, deciding he probably isn’t nearby after all. She turns to go looking for him elsewhere, only to feel a hoof on her shoulder as soon as she’s facing the other way. Startled, she whirls around again, finding herself face to face with her brother.

“Where did you come from?!” she exclaims, quickly being quieted as he puts a hoof to her lips. She pushes it away and tries again, now almost whispering. “I literally looked away not even a full second ago.”

“I had my camo shield up. I was right beside you.” He looks around before meeting her eyes again. “What’s wrong?”

“I came to ask you that.” Noticing a bench nearby, she trots over and sits down, the unicorn following. “Why did you just run out like that?”

Winter tilts his head. “What do you mean?”

His sister narrows her eyes. “You know exactly what I mean. At the restaurant. The waitress was talking to us and suddenly you were out the door like a cannonball.”

The unicorn pauses for a couple seconds before replying. “I have no idea what you’re-”

“Just shut up and tell me!” Limelight snaps, ignoring the oxymoron in that statement. “You scared all of us! Why won’t you at least say why?!”

“Why won’t you mind your own business?” Winter fires back. “Apparently three years wasn’t enough time apart for you to reach a more suitable level of maturity, huh? You’re still sticking your muzzle in places it doesn’t belong.”

The earth pony actually pauses for a moment. This isn’t like him… what’s going on? Like all siblings, the two had been subject to their arguments in the past; however, while she’d never admit it out loud, all of them had been her own fault. Winter only retaliated. So why did it seem like, this time, he was trying to get her riled up?

Winter continues to stare her down, waiting for a response. She sighs. I could back down, but… then he’ll never tell me. All I can do is keep pushing until he gives up.

“Considering I’m your sister, Winter Solstice, I’d think that you running away from our mother’s birthday dinner would constitute as at least partially my business,” she finally replies. “What happened to you in there? Did you remember something?”

He growls. “No, but I am now starting to remember why I left home in the first place.”

That hits her hard. All aggression quickly dissipates in favour of sadness, but it returns in full force, the two negative emotions mixing together. “And I’m starting to wonder why I missed you!”

“Maybe because you’re such a drama queen?” He rolls his eyes. “With how little you cared about me, I would’ve expected you to just call dibs on my room and be done with it.”

“I do care!” she yells. In the back of her mind, she thanks Celestia for the complete lack of any other civilians within earshot. “That’s why I came out here to look for you, you idiot! You had a freakout, and now you won’t tell me why! I’m just trying to help!”

“Well you’re certainly failing on that front!”

“You mean like how you failed at being a brother?!” Noticing his guard slip, she presses on. “Couldn’t even tell me yourself what was going on, could you? All I hear is that you’re off to Canterlot for work, and the next thing I know, you’re gone for three years! I didn’t even know what your work was until dad finally told me! I thought you were gonna die!” She shoves him, pools of tears beginning to form at the bottoms of her eyes. “You have no idea what it’s like; for your older brother to just be there one day and then possibly gone forever the next!”

“Yes I do!” he shouts back, pushing her harder and nearly knocking her off the bench. Growling, she shoves him again, completely onto his back, and stands over him. She looks like she’s saying something else, but he doesn’t hear; he only sees. And what he sees is, for all of half a second, a new pony take her place.

Her coat turns black. Her mane and tail turn white. Fully erect wings sprout from her sides. Her cutie mark changes from a spotlight to a bag of salty powder. And her angry expression becomes a half-lidded gaze of desire.

And then she’s in the air, held aloft by light blue magic, struggling desperately.

“Winter! Stop! Please! I’m sorry!” she cries, her body returning instantly to the one he recognizes as his sister’s. “I didn’t mean it! I’m sorry! Please put me down!”

Taking a sudden deep breath, Winter nearly cancels his magic, but catches himself just in time. Instead, he gently levitates his sister back over to the bench, sitting her on it and pulling her into a hug.

“Winter…?” she gasps, surprised by the sudden switch of moods. She goes silent for a moment when she hears him whimpering quietly, and slowly returns the hug. “Wh-what… what happened…?”

For several moments, neither of them speak. The unicorn just continues to sob into her fur, while she holds him in a comforting manner that she’s more used to being on the receiving end of. Eventually, his whimpering quiets down to deep breathing, and he begins to speak again.

“Y-You were right...” he breathes out, catching her attention. “T-Talcum… she is my ex-girlfriend...”

Limelight frowns. “Did… did something happen?”

He nods, pulling back from the hug so he can look her in the face. “We… we were together for only a couple of weeks...” He shuts his eyes, starting to breathe faster, until he forces himself to regain control. “She...”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Secondary school is a rather interesting period of time for students. Interesting, that is, in a rather awkward way. It is typically around this time when thoughts of romance begin to develop, as well as deeper hormonal urges. Some suppress the latter of these as much as they can, while others decide to ignore what is considered ‘common sense’ and just dive right in.

A couple consisting of a stallion from the first side and a mare from the second side was bound to cause problems. But nopony really thought it’d cause as much trouble as it did.

Talcum Powder first caught Winter’s eye during an extracurricular chemistry course. He took it out of boredom and a desire to try something new, while she took it simply because she needed some extra credits to pass. Nevertheless, he found himself looking at her, and she found herself enjoying the attention. (The fact that puberty had been rather kind to Winter, as opposed to the voice cracks and facial breakouts it granted most other stallions, may have helped.)

She had taken the initiative and asked him out; a strange inversion of the usual process, but as they say, to each their own. They went on a few casual dates, warming up to one another quickly. In fact, it only took three weeks for Talcum to decide things could speed up a little.

The evening of what was supposed to be another dinner date saw Winter knocking on Talcum’s door and waiting patiently. Despite the occasion, he only wore a light blue vest, though his mane was brushed in a much neater fashion than usual. However, when Talcum opened the door, he saw that she was even less prepared; she had nothing on at all, and judging by the half-combed state her mane was in, she was still in the middle of getting ready.

“Oh, Winter? You’re early,” she pointed out, a slight purr in her voice. She opened the door completely. “Come on in. I’m just deciding what to wear.”

The unicorn chuckled. “I’m only two minutes early, Talcum.” Nevertheless, he stepped inside, glancing around. “Anypony else home?”

“Not right now. My dad is working late tonight, and my mom is visiting her sisters in Appleloosa.” She giggled. “It’s just the two of us.”

Something about the way she said that made Winter a little nervous, but he shrugged it off. “Alright then. So, how long until you’re ready?”

“Oh, I’ve been ready for a while now.” She kicked the door closed and locked it. “The question is if you’re ready.”

The unicorn blinked. “Um… yes? But… didn’t you say-”

He didn’t finish. She tackled him to the ground, shoving their lips together. Winter’s blue face went a bright red, but the new sensation was just too pleasurable to pass up. It went on for a surprising length of time before Talcum pulled away, stroking the side of his cheek with a hoof.

“Want to come on up to my room?” she asked, the purr in her voice much more noticeable. “I imagine the floor down here isn’t very comfy...”

Winter just nodded, not quite sure what was going on. His brain was abandoning him; his heart was beating faster than ever; and certain other parts of his body were begging him to just go along with his girlfriend’s desires.

And that’s how he found himself being tossed onto a soft mattress, a pegasus using her mouth to unzip his vest as though opening a Hearth’s Warming present. Around this time, his mind finally regained control and began flashing very loud warning sirens.

“T-Talcum?” he asked nervously. “What… what are we d-doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” She giggled, flinging his vest to the side. “Each other.”

The warning sirens grew louder. “...I-I think I need to go now...”

“Why?” she purred, standing up over him with an insistent look of desire etched onto her face. “You had no problems coming up here with me.”

Push her off… Winter’s mind tried to give him instructions. No, she might get hurt… levitate her? No, magic’s not strong enough… just run? She isn’t moving… oh Celestia what is she doing, help, help, get me out of here help don’t touch me no go away…

And so he just stayed perfectly still as she began to lower herself closer to him. She was practically laying on top of him, licking along his neck as their lower regions just start to make contact.

“I don’t see why you would want to leave… after all...” Talcum grins, tickling his chin with a hoof. “...this is a night for fun.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Limelight just sits there, blinking. When Winter finishes his story, he slumps over, looking like he’s ready to freak out again. He holds onto his sister, as if she’s the only thing keeping him from doing so; which, in fact, is entirely likely.

The earth pony finally speaks. “...that… is the most fu-”

“-n?! You thought it would be fun?!”

Talcum blinks. “...Mrs. Frost, I’m not sure I understand your-” She gets silenced when the dark turquoise mare leans in close.

“Then listen better,” Perma hisses. Talcum swallows nervously, looking around for a distraction. However, since they had moved to the back of the restaurant out of the public eye, there wasn’t much she could do. “Let me clarify. You went out with my son for a few weeks, and then, when you were both underage, forced him into having sex with you when your parents were away?”

The pegasus shrugs. “I don’t like to think I ‘forced’ him into anything. He could have just left.”

“From the way you told the story, it sounded like he certainly tried,” the mother says through gritted teeth. “What did you expect him to do? Throw you against the wall to get you off him? Even if he was the kind of child who’d hurt a filly, you would’ve just turned around and played the victim because ‘he hurt you’.”

Talcum scoffs. “I would not! I am always honest!”

“Then why is this the first time I’ve heard of you raping my son?!”

“It wasn’t really rape,” the pegasus replies, sounding annoyed now.

Perma raises an eyebrow. “Oh? Why not? Because he didn’t say no? Because you were already in a relationship? Because you were never caught?” She slams a hoof on the floor as she leans in dangerously close, causing Talcum to lean back. “Any excuse, hun. Pick any you can think of. But if I don’t like it, it will be what I write on your grave!”

There’s a knock on the door, and in steps a dark green earth pony stallion. He looks to the two. “Is there a problem, Miss Powder?”

Perma smiles. “Oh, are you this young lady’s manager?”

“Yes, I am,” he says calmly. “And you are keeping her from her work, if I might add.”

“I do apologize. I was just on my way out.” The mother nods before heading for the door. “Oh, but before I go… may I make a recommendation?”

The manager tilts his head. “What might that be?”

Perma smiles. “Ask your employee here to tell you the story about how she raped my son back when they were in secondary school. It’s a gem, I assure you.” With one final dark glare to the pegasus, she storms out of the room.