The day had begun fairly normal. Coffee and tea served on a clasped silver tray with two waffles, a butter slab, and one cup of hot syrup on the side, not on top. There was to be no music before six and no curtain opening until seven. A pressed warm towel bed side, vased daisies for accents and all doilies placed accordingly.
Two sugars one cream and no talking during servings. And just like every morning, breakfast was to be served promptly at six thirty, not six thirty one, not six twenty nine but six thirty exactly just as it had been everyday since Desert Rose had started working there. She wrote all the particulars of Sauna’s busy schedule down in a pink note book with lace trim.
Read it, memorized it, and made two almost exact copies of it in the forms of a green note book with cinnamon ribbon for Suncup, and a blue stickered one placed at the front door for emergencies. Of course Rose didn’t enjoy stickers as she found them quite tacky but Suncup had been in charge of decorating the house notebook while Rose was out for the evening and decided that adhesive covered stickers would be “cute”.
Desert Rose was the good maid, she made sure of it. Weather it was deciding the shade of white the walls would be painted or painting them she made sure to be very particular. Today however she was annoyingly particular, or so Suncup felt. Suncup was the other maid or “the second maid” as Rose like to put it, she had no important role that Rose didn’t personally overlook.
Even little things like dusting the halls was supervised by Rose. After the sticker fiasco where Rose struggled for hours to try and remove them she vowed never to let Suncup do anything unsupervised again, and that's exactly how it was ever since. Today was Suncups lucky day however as she was allowed to make breakfast for Sauna all by herself. Rose had been out all night a few moons ago and had caught a terrible cold so she couldn’t touch anything.
Though that didn’t stop her from trying to live the experience vicariously through Suncup’s hooves. She had spent the better half of the early morning barking out orders at Suncup until she was horse and spent the worst part of it intently following and watching her. Suncup however kept uncharacteristically calm through the whole ordeal, feeling very pleased and superior as she and not bossy miss thorn bush made breakfast for Rose’s beloved Sauna Jet.
Suncup did twirls and curtsies dancing throughout the kitchen as she flipped the eggs and chopped the carrots like she had watched Rose do for so many years. After Suncup had finished preparing breakfast in the usual manner she had grown accustom to Rose in her usual Rosey way began the lengthy process of getting the harness to carry it on and strapping it to Suncup’s back. Of Course Rose had always been the recipient of the harness so it took painfully longer then usual. Suncup paying no mind to her struggle pranced in place ready to deliver breakfast for the first time.
Suncup tip toed daintily up the large flight of stairs taking extra time on the landings so she wouldn’t spill as Rose watched at the first step. She was not allowed past the first step because of her cold and so she spent her time down stairs pretending like she didn’t want to go up and check on things. She fluffed her hair, dusted the pillows and at her most desperate to keep an eye on Suncup opened the curtains just to shut them again as it was not past seven yet.
As Suncup poured enthusiastically into the open hallway leading to the master bedroom she admired all the paintings and fixtures she never got to when Rose was watching. She noted that she especially liked the one that Sauna put up of Storm Chaser.
Though it had always been her favorite of the bunch she never got to truly enjoy it. She took a while longer to brush her hooves against the warm pink carpet as she walked. She loved the Mansion and it’s vast amount of rooms filled with memories. It wasn't often she was allowed to enjoy it like this. Somehow the cold glare of Rose’s piercing blue eyes made every room seem hollow, but not today.
As she opened the door she was surprised to find Sauna out of bed. Sauna had dragged herself and her quilt over to the window to stare at the sea, a thing she often did out of habit. Suncup could feel her stomach shift as she watched her, a hopeless mass of hair and quilt sitting there waiting for somepony who would never come.
“Sauna?” she called quietly after her.
Sauna turned around to look at Suncup with a weak smile.
“Sorry I was just checking the weather dear. I must have forgotten all about breakfast.” Sauna had an unusual affliction with calling everypony dear as many ponies who had been brought up in the high society of Canterlot seem to.
Sauna pushed herself up letting the quilt fall away to reveal her large belly and stretched her wings for a while. At this stage of her pregnancy she looked more like a watermelon on stilts then a athletic flyer and by her small range of movement during her usually vigorous morning stretch Suncup could tell she was self conscious about it.
She and Storm Chaser had discussed having a foal a couple of times in their years together, meaning that Storm Chaser begged and groveled at her hooves while Sauna drank her afternoon tea, until one day for no reason other then her personal interest in the idea, or so she said, she agreed.
Sauna and Storm Chaser were two very different ponies and it showed better in no other subject then babies. Where Storm
Chaser saw an opportunity for a new kind of love Sauna saw a chance to carry on her legacy. Sauna was a strange mare that way. She valued beauty and reputation above all else.
Even now living outside of Canterlot in the San Palomino Dessert all she ever spoke of was image. How ponies thought of her, how she looked in this issue of High Flyers magazine, how fat she was getting. All of it and her own inhibitions seemed to form the boundaries of Sauna Jet’s life. Sauna pressed hoof over dainty heel and headed toward the bed. Carefully she laid herself over the covers.
Her long shiny pink hair lying in thick strands across her back as her bulging tummy nestled in the crisp blue sheets. She insisted on blue even though everything else resonated with the white and gold Canterlot style. Not just any shade of blue either, Cloudsdale sky blue to help her forget the pain of being grounded for so long. At least that what she said.
But as she laid there sinking into the heap of blue Suncup since it wasn’t her maternity leave that was bothering her. It was clear to Suncup as she slid breakfast onto the nightstand that Sauna was lying in a sea of her own despair.
There was only one pony she could call in a situation like this. Suncup walked swiftly out of the room down the hall past the stairs were Rose began opening the curtains, to the end of the last hallway to the emergency line.
She stopped briefly in momentary hesitation before picking up the phone. But before Suncup was even able to start dialing a booming voice rang out from behind.
“Just what do you think you’re doing!?”
There Rose stood seemingly towering over Suncup.
Suncup quickly spoke up.
“What are YOU doing?” she bellowed harshly back ”You're not suppose to be up here! Sauna can’t-”
“Get sick right now, I know.”
Replied Rose taking the phone from Suncup. Rose walked around Suncup and gingerly put the phone back on the hook before locking it with her key.
“Hey!” Growled Suncup angrily stomping her hoof. “I was using that!”
Rose, behaved pompously superior as usual not bothering to retort to Suncup’s outrage. She simply walked away with the only key to the phone jiggling around her small neck. As Suncup began to sulk Rose stopped at the corner of the hallway to issue one last stern warning.
“That phone is not to be touched.” She paused narrowing her eyes seemingly for dramatic affect. “Not by anypony.” As she walked down the stairs feeling quite pleased with herself Suncup, hot from her one sided debate with Rose, stomped around a little before begrudgingly returning down the hall to help Sauna with her morning bath.
Sauna had never before required such assistance with these things before the pregnancy so she acted more then a little shy when having Suncup help her.
She always made sure to state that a lady of her status wouldn’t normally do this sort of thing but circumstances being what they were, and then she’d sort of trail off from there.
After she had finished “undressing” from her quilt and had wrapped a towel around her bulbous belly Suncup helped her down the little gold plated steps and into the warm bubbly water.
Sauna's mind drifted as it often did when she worried.
”Who does he think he is?” she said finally breaking the silence.
“Who?” questioned Suncup pulling Sauna’s long pinkish red locks from the bathtub.
“Who do you think dear?” Sauna gestured softly in no particular direction before stretching her long slender legs over the facet. “How long have we been married and not once has he come to one of my shows. Now with any luck he’ll miss his foal being born too.” Suncup smiled at the sudden realization of who exactly they were talking about.
She ran the brush slowly over Sauna’s mane hoping the longer it took for her to get through it the more they could talk about Storm Chaser. It wasn’t often that Suncup was allowed to talk freely about him.
Rose was much too busy talking about the new baby and she wouldn’t dare ask Sauna herself considering it would most likely throw her into a frenzy. When he would return was a question she asked herself quietly before bed. A question she hoped would be answered by somepony soon.
“He gets me knocked up just to go out adventuring in the Celestial sea without me! She continued. “Why would he do that!?”
Sauna craned her long neck to look up at Suncup expecting an answer.
“Well.” She said unsure of what to say. “Storm Chaser’s infinity for the sea is something only he can understand. I guess we just have to accept the fact that we come second.”
Suncup laughed awkwardly shocked at the truthfulness of what she had said. It had never occurred to her in all her years of working for Storm Chaser that she actually came second to his love of marine biology .
Of course it was always obvious to her but this was the first time she had ever thought that it might actually be true.
Sauna fell coldly silent the absence of her reassuring voice in reply made Suncup uneasy.
She laughed again trying desperately to break the tension. Sauna had never cried in front of any pony other then Rose but as the tingle of short gasping breaths began to grow Suncup felt that that was about to change. Unsure of what to do next she quietly set the brush down and went to get Rose. She found Rose in her usual place, the laundry room.
As Rose began separating the whites from the technicolors she was ambushed by a sweaty out of breath Suncup.
She had no idea what she was screaming about but through the incoherence she gathered that Sauna was in trouble. Rose rushed up stairs to see what was going on barely containing her enthusiasm to be doing so, Suncup following closely behind. As she swung open the door to the bathroom she found Sauna heavily breathing and flailing her legs around.
“So?” Asked Suncup nervously from behind. “ Make her stop!”
Rose rushed over to Sauna and tried to put together what was happening. Before she could speak Sauna grabbed her by her small pink apron and pulled her in close.
“Call Storm Chaser!” She screamed obviously in serious pain.
Rose locked up with fear. She was too young to know what to do in a situation like this and for the first time in her career her inexperience showed.
Suncup stared on in horror at a frozen Rose and an in labor Sauna.
For all her dislike for Rose telling her what to do she really wished Rose was conscious enough to tell her what to do right now. Suncup heaved the heavily pregnant Sauna out of the tub dressing her with a towel before pushing her out the door to the stairs.
Sure that she could make it down on her own she went back for Rose. She turned around to see Rose at the phone frantically spouting off to somepony she assumed was Storm Chaser. Despite the urgency they both spoke in hushed tones.
Suncup headed down the hallway hoping to hear a little of their conversation but as soon as she got close enough Rose quickly hung up. The ride to the hospital in Los Pegasus was a long one but with a panicked Rose and Suncup pulling as fast as they could muster they seemed to arrive in no time at all.
