Octavia’s brow furrowed as she drew her bow across the cello strings. The result screech made the musician frown and shake her head.
No, not right…, she thought. What about…
The mare brought the bow against the strings again and prepared to draw it across, only to be interrupted by the sound of hooves.
Oh, what now? Octavia thought to herself as she placed the bow and cello down. Turning around, Fredrick rolled his eyes.
“Hard at work again, I see.” The stallion chuckled.
“I don’t have much time at home to work on this,” Octavia shrugged, “You know how that can be.”
“Right, the glory of motherhood,” Fredrick chuckled again, “By the way, we just got a message from their school.”
“What’s wrong?” Octavia frowned.
“You need to go pick them up.”
“What are you talking about? It’s only…” Octavia glanced up at the clock, only to do a double take, “It’s that late already?”
“Told you.” Fredrick chuckled as Octavia scrambled to get her things together, “The glory of motherhood.”
“Now is not a good time, I’ll see you all later.”
Octavia rushed out the door, nearly knocking Beauty Brass and Harpo over. As Brass watched her run off, Harpo turned towards Fredrick, expecting a response.
“She forgot about Sonata and Treble.” Fredrick paused, “Again.”
Octavia continued to rush through the crowd, dodging ponies and other obstacles. The mare leapt over a stooping stallion, slid between a couple trotting down the street, and narrowly avoided smashing her cello case into another couple’s face. The blue unicorn and Gamboge pegasus glared at Octavia as she spun around to apologize.
“Sorry, I’m in a rush!” the mare turned around again and ducked under a pair of earth ponies moving a couch.
“Canterlot’s sort of dangerous, isn’t it?” Flash shrugged.
“Abit.” Trixie responded, “One of the reasons I didn’t like performing here; regulations, unspoken guidelines…”
Octavia skidded to a stop in front of one building and hurried up the front stairs. The mare barged through the front door, nearly knocking over an older, middle aged earth mare. The mare frowned as Octavia caught her breath.
“Mrs. Philharmonica, we do expect parents to pick up their children in a timely matter.”
“I apologize, there is an event my quartet is expected to perform in, and we have been practicing for it…” Octavia began to apologize, before the other mare held up a hoof.
“We understand, it happens with parents all the time,” the mare sighed, “Besides, their other mother does it all the time.”
Octavia blushed, “Well…someone has to be the responsible parent.”
Another door opened as a pair of fillies trotted out. The older of the two fillies was a grey-blue pegasus with a jet black mane, while the other was a light grey earth pony, with her multicolored mane tied back in a ponytail. As the left, another mare stuck her head out, beaming at the two.
“Now remember girls, do your homework!” the mare smiled.
“We will Miss Chalkdust…” the older of the fillies rolled her eyes. The younger one looked towards Octavia, and beamed.
“Hi mommy!” the filly ran over and embraced Octavia in a hug. Octavia smiled, returning the hug.
“Hello Sonata, ready to go home?”
“Uh-huh!” the filly bobbed her head up and down as the older filly trotted over.
“Hi mom.”
“Hello Treble, ready to go home?”
“Yep.”
Octavia turned to the older mare, “I’m terrible sorry, this won’t happen again.”
“It’s alright.”
Octavia turned around and headed out with her daughters. As they began their way down the street, Treble’s wings flittered and she took to the air, flying alongside her sister and mother.
“So what did you do in school today?”
“We colored, and had to talk about our pets,” Sonata responded, “Flash Step said he got a rabbit and it poops everywhere.”
“…Too much information, Natty.” Treble scrunched her face up and shook her head.
“and then I got to talk about Tank and Tempo, except I couldn’t say what kind of dog Tempo was and I ended up calling her a pommera..papapp..pommel..” Sonata fumbled over the word.
“Papillon,” Octavia corrected.
“Yeah, Papalion,” Sonata nodded, “And I found out that Miss Babs got one too.”
“It’s ‘found out Miss Babs has one too’.” Octavia corrected.
“That’s what I said,” Sonata nodded.
“And what about you, Treble?”
“We did math,” Treble stuck out her tongue, “I hate it.”
“You have to learn it, regardless.” Octavia chided her daughter, “It’s important to be well rounded.”
“Bleh.” Treble stuck her tongue out again as Sonata giggled, “I still don’t like it.”
Octavia sighed, “You sound just lik-”
“And then we had music today,” Treble continued on, “I got singled out again to play the piece in front of the entire class. Again.”
“…And?”
“Nailed it.” Treble beamed, “Everyone else didn’t want to play it after me because they were too embarrassed.”
Octavia rolled her eyes, “It’s wonderful that you managed to play it well, but remember…”
“Don’t brag about it, yeah, yeah, I know.” Treble chuckled, “Still doesn’t mean that I’m awesome.”
Octavia groaned and brought a hoof to her forehead as Sonata giggled.
“You really do take after her.”
“What are we gonna have for dinner?” Sonata asked, “I wanna have tacos.”
“We just had tacos the other night, Sonata.” Octavia reminded her.
“But I like tacos, and so does Tempo,” the filly replied, “Tank like the guacamola.”
“Its guacamole and you’re not supposed to feed them table scraps.” Octavia scolded her youngest, “What about you, Treble?”
“I want Pizza.”
“I like pizza too!” Sonata added.
“…I was thinking more something we could go home and cook, rather than just buy take out.”
“No. I want Pizza.” Sonata pouted.
“…Oh fine…” Octavia conceded as her daughters cheered, “There’s one right there, let’s go order it and take it home…”
“Race you!” Treble grinned as she zipped towards the doors.
“No fair!” Sonata took off after her older sister.
“Girls! Hold on!” Octavia took off after the two fillies. The two smaller ponies zipped through the crowd, ducking and weaving through. Octavia slowed as she struggled through the mass of ponies.
“Sorry, sorry…my daughters ran off. My apologies. Sorry, sorry…” Octavia apologized as she moved through the crowd.
Treble landed and looked in front of her. The neon sign bearing the words “CATRIA’S PIZZARIA” flashed at the filly as she grinned.
“Looks like I’m going to b-”
A multicolored blur whizzed pass Treble and crashed into the door frame. Sonata collapsed onto the ground, rubbing her head.
“Oww…” the filly sniffled as tears welled up in her eyes.
“H-hey, c’mon Natty, don’t cry…” Treble trotted over, trying vainly to calm her sister, “C’mon, mom’s been through r…” the pegasus trailed off as Sonata burst into tears.
“…Aw crap.”
“TREBLECLEF GISELLE PHILHARMONIA!” Octavia bellowed as saw the scene in front of the restaurant. The crowd quickly parted, leaving a path for the angry mare.
“What did you do?”
“I-I didn’t do anything!” Treble stammered, “I stopped here, and then Natty was running to fast and she couldn’t stop and in time and she….”
“We’ll talk about this later,” Octavia icily cut her off. The mare turned her attention to the sniveling filly still clutching her head.
“Sonata, move your hooves so I can see.”
“But it hurts…”
“I can’t make it feel better if you don’t let me look,” Octavia gently told her daughter, “Can I see?”
“..’Kay…” Sonata moved her hooves away from her head, revealing a small red bump.
“Oh, it’s not that bad,” Octavia breathed a sigh of relief, “It’s just a little swelling, you’ll be fine.”
“It still hurts.” Sonata sniveled.
“If we go inside, we can get some ice for it and that will make it all better,” Octavia replied.
“…ok.”
Sonata got back onto her hooves and followed Octavia into the restaurant, with Treble tailing them. As they entered, they noticed the line consisted of a single pony, who turned and looked at the newcomers.
“…Oh, Hey Tavia.” Rainbow Dash grinned.
“Hi mom!” Sonata beamed, forgetting about her headache. The filly bounced over and embraced the pegasus.
“Hey Specs,” Dash gave Sonata a playful head rub, causing the filly to wince, “Oops, you got a lump there, did you hit your head on something?”
“They decided to race here, and she couldn’t stop in time,” Octavia replied.
“…So that’s what that thumping noise was,” Dash frowned, “And what do you have to say for yourself, Treb?”
“…It was an accident?” the other filly’s mouth turned into a nervous grin.
“…I’m gonna let Tavi punish you,” Dash turned her attention back to her wife, “How come you’re out so late? I thought you guys would be home by now.”
“I lost track of time at practice, and just picked them up,” Octavia replied, “I figured you’d still be at work, so we decided to go pick up pizza on the way home. Why are you here?”
“I just got off, and figured, I could get away with picking up a couple of pizzas for dinner tonight.” Dash shrugged, “What do you want?”
“I want onions, bell peppers, mushrooms and avocado,” Sonata replied.
“We still have avocado at home, you can put it on yourself,” Dash pointed out.
“I want olives and hot peppers.” Treble replied.
“I’ll just eat a bit of theirs,” Octavia shrugged.
“Right then,” Dash turned to the cashier, “Can I get two mediums, one with onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms, the other with olives and hot peppers, and a large one with feta, green peppers, mushrooms and red onions?”
“Bleeehhh” Treble stuck out her tongue as Sonata giggled.
“Anything else?” the cashier chuckled.
“I don’t…”
“Can we get breadsticks?” Sonata jumped in.
“No, we should get cinnamon bites,” Treble countered.
“Breadsticks!”
“Bites!”
“Breadsticks!”
“Bites!”
“Can we get an order of each?” Dash turned to the cashier as Octavia rolled her eyes.
Sonata wiggled into her bed, gripping her plush grasshopper close to her. Dash followed her, pulling the covers over her daughter.
“Alright Sonata, sleep tight.”
Dash leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.
“You have to kiss Kickback too.” Sonata pushed the insect plush towards Dash.
“Fine…” Dash rolled her eyes as she kissed the grasshopper between its eyes, “Now sweet dreams.”
Dash turned around and left the room, flicking the light switch off as she closed the door. The mare continued down the hallway, passing photos of herself and Octavia on dates, at their wedding, holding the newborn Treble and Sonata, and a final family portrait. Dash pushed open another door, and trotted into her bedroom. Octavia laid on the left of the bed, reading one of the Daring Do books. As Dash flopped down onto her side of the bed, Octavia closed the book and put it onto her nightstand.
“I can’t believe you let them eat all of that,” Octavia shook her head.
“They’re growing kids,” Dash laughed, “They’re gonna eat a lot.”
“Sonata ate half the cinnamon bites by herself; she’s not going to be able to sleep.”
“Why didn’t you stop her?” Dash countered, “You’re supposed to be the responsible parent.”
“There are going to be times where you’ll have to be the responsible one as well.”
“Pfft, like they’re gonna take me seriously,” Dash laughed.
Octavia rolled her eyes, “It’s not going to hurt.”
“Alright, alright…” Dash pulled Octavia closer and kissed her on the forehead, “Next time.”
“Good night Dash.”
“Night Tavia.”
The two mares kissed and turned off their lamps.
