War Mages & False Prophets

Chapter 17
Meet the Parents, Forest Tales and Dwellers Trails Part II

"I don't see why you are dragging me along to the castle, mom. It won't change my mind, I am not apologizing to the freak of our family. Just because she is in town and you think I should make peace with her," Minuette groused, running a hand through her long white and dark blue hair as she scratched the back of her head. She stood an inch or two above her mother. Pouting like a filly that didn't get her way before she chose to nettle her mother a little more. "And I also have zero interest in meeting who she is working for. If the sensationalist papers are even to be believed then whoever this creature sounds like just as big a freak of nature. So why are we trying to rope this freak into our herds?”

Viola De Gamba whirled on her daughter, hissing with an icy whisper and locking eyes with her. "Young filly, you will not speak of that. I will not have you ruining this chance to increase our standing. I will also not have you air this family's dirty laundry to frighten this prospect away. You will be cordial, or I will see to it your monthly stipend is stopped."

Minuette flinched like she had been slapped, her jaw dropping in shock. "Mom!"

Vinyl and Octavia flinched as well. They had also been brought along at their mother's insistence. Vinyl would have tagged along for another shot to see Braxton and Lyra again. Octavia, on the other hand, wanted to begin the tremendous amount of paperwork that would be needed to get a replacement for Marchello. She had to maybe pick up a rental for the gala that was tomorrow night, and she was more than worried that she would play poorly, given that it would be a rental.

Vinyl signed to Octavia, " Isn't that Lyra over there?"

Octavia looked over to a nearby table where indeed her sister was seated. She was alone for once, and that surprised her. "Yes."

Lyra had come to this particular restaurant because she liked the food and it was a familiar place for her to think. Right now, her thoughts were centered on the date she had made with Twilight. After assuring the mare that she would never be excluded from any herd of hers—mostly due in part to the fact Twilight had single-handedly introduced the pair, as well as saved her from taking her own life. Running in equal measure of thought was Braxton. The man had given her just enough of a nudge to even think about starting a herd. He had inadvertently proven the oldest mare’s tales right about mustangs. 'The essential joy of being with a true mustang is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire.' Lyra was happy that he would adopt pony customs. But a few books did not all knowledge make. She was also having second thoughts about showing him off to the academics of Canterlot, given he had called her his lead mare, and it made her feel guilty... like she would be using him to elevate herself. But then again, why did she care what the nobles thought about her? Even though as an academic she was laughed at. Thought of only as a joke to them. But she had helped her Mustang with the spiders, and all had come back alive.

Lyra was drawn out of her musings when she heard Vinyl's whistle to get her attention. She smiled till she saw the whole family, her expression going stoically flat as the other three mares approached and sat down at the table.

"Nice place, sis. Where is your coltfriend?" Vinyl signed sitting down at the table.

"Said he had an errand to run and that he would be back soon," Lyra mouthed, since Vinyl could also read lips.

"Vinyl is right, it is a nice place to come and relax," Octavia said sitting down by her sister. Her mother sat next to Octavia as a waiter came to ask the mare what they would like to drink as they sat down. Only Minuette stayed standing.

Vinyl made a series of hand gestures, and Octavia said pointing to Vinyl, "She'll have a Zap-Apple daiquiri, hay burger and fries, I will have a cherry malt and salad, mom?...Apple House cider?" Viola De Gamba answered with a nod of her head yes. Octavia looked to Minuette for what she wanted.

Minuette looked over the group with scorn before she opened her mouth. "If I am going to sit here at this table I will take a Zap-Apple on the rocks,"

"Lushing out early sister?" Vinyl sniped.

"Buck you street trotter! Minuette said in lashing gestures.

"Not bent to mares. Besides, don't you already cover from Stone Saddle Street to Pasture Gardens?" Vinyl signed. Her older sister was too easy sometimes.

Minuette looked shocked for a moment, then anger swiftly took its place and she looked like she was to let what her sister said come to blows but Viola interceded.

"Young fillies, that is enough out of the two of you. If you think you can behave like spoiled rich fillies just because we are in public, I have zero qualms about punishing you two here in public as I am well within my right to do to the two of you!" Viola said, her tone icy and seething. Daring anypony at the table to test her.

Both mares capitulated, sinking into their seats. Given both knew full well what their mother was like when she finally lost her collective cool.

The attending waiter, a blue and white-maned pegasus—feeling uncomfortable around the mares at the table—took the orders and beat a hasty retreat.

Lyra rubbed her eyes and temples, trying to get rid of a headache her mother and family had inadvertently brought on. She sighed heavily, looking to her own glass of mint tea and maybe wished she had ordered something stronger. Lyra saw the tactic her mother was about to use but still let it happen anyway.

"So daughter...," Viola began her tone calm once more. "could you please tell us about this who-man you are seeing and working for?"

"Yes! Let's talk about that bad flank coltfriend of yours. Octi, and I wanted the dish on this all day. But mom said we should focus on spending time together," Vinyl signed as Octavia looked to her sister shocked.

"Thank you for throwing me under the cart, sister," Octavia signed giving a pout, resting her chin in her hand.

Viola De Gamba rolled her eyes at her youngest daughter for her lacking youthful tact.

"Could you please call him Braxton? Or even Ambassador Zeddmore," Lyra asked, holding her hands out over the table pleadingly, her ears cocked in annoyance. "And he is a human, not a whoman. Can you do that for me?"

"Oh sweetie you're right, and I am sorry, we just want to understand," her mother amended with a soft smile, taking her daughter's hands and brought them down to rest on the table.
Here was the tactic her mother loved most—herd pressure.

"Understand what?" she asked at length, her gaze passing to each member at the table in turn before returning to her mother’s gaze. "That I love him? That I am falling more and more for him every day?"

"Sweetheart I know what love is like the first time. I know he seems very exotic, but there are too many differences, and I know you had always flown in the face of the status quo, especially when it came to human studies. This is just too different, sweetheart. Given his size and being so prone to violence ...he could hurt you without meaning to."

Lyra released a short laugh at that she wasn't really going to deny any of it, she was going to let her mother get it all out on the table be the good daughter and listen till Viola was finished...then Lyra would let her have it.

"The herd worries about you, dear. It's great that you work for him, but it is a different matter to take that stallion to bed Lyra." her mother finished as Lyra leaned back separating her hands from her mothers.

Now it was her turn, and Lyra planned on giving it to her mother with both barrels. "Mom it's only different because you don't know him like I do. I know it hardly sounds fair, but you haven't even asked me about him. Or how it started? Or why I trust him so in such a short time? Or when did I realize? Or even when did he realize it? But no. All I'm hearing is how worried you are and that something might happen to me. You could at least ask some of these questions of me before you start telling me I am making a mistake!"

Violia flinched at her daughter's words she was about to open her mouth in rebuttal when she looked behind her daughter as her gaze joined the other members of the herd looking behind Lyra.

Lyra realized they were looking behind her for but a breath before gentle hands, eight fingers caressed down her mane and the back of her neck. The feather-light touch causing all tension to drain out of her. The tingle of his touch causing her body to melt back into the chair, her head rolling back to look into a pair of beautiful Lapis Lazuli eyes. He was the most beautiful stallion on the planet for all she was concerned. His sword slung over his shoulder, its hilt resting on his shoulder, glinting in the sun, as the supple baldric complimented the mottled green cloak that shimmered in the sun, a small breeze turning up the edges of it. His scent hit her nose once more; that smell of firewood, earth, and cinnamon.

His warm smile that he was giving her made her own lips turn upward when his fingers found the ultrafine fur at the base of her ears for a scratch. A romantic gesture but coming awful close to what the public might take offense to but the main thought running through her mind was wishing her mom and sisters weren't at the table, or she might have wallowed in the sensation… she didn't give a buck, she wallowed in it.

Lyra closed her eyes and let out a slow sigh of contentment only to open them once more when Braxton spoke.

"Your mother is correct, you know, it is different," Braxton said in a warm, gentle tone. Lyra cocked an eyebrow at him. "Different than anything you have encountered,"

"Oh, stars and stones I hope so," she groaned without the least bit of guilt feeling his fingers give her one last touch to the ultrafine fur at the base of her ears. My beautiful Mustang I love you!

Braxton pulled out a small bell out of his red belt pouch as he moved from behind her. "While it isn't around my neck I guess it could work," the bell gave a ridiculously small little tinkle, and Lyra giggled as he put the bell away and asked softly "Might I join the good mares at this table?"

Four out of the five mares nodded yes with a smile. As Braxton took a chair from a nearby table and sat down signaling the waiter that he would be joining the mares.

”I take back just how bad she has it. If sis were a pegasus she would be sporting the most prominent wing boner right now,” Vinyl signed, not bothering to hide it.

"Vinyl!" Lyra barked at her sister as she blushed at how brazen her sister was just because Braxton didn't understand sign language.

Braxton and Octavia laughed softly. Braxton for watching the sisters at play, and Octavia for seeing Vinyl get a rise out of her sister in front of her coltfriend.

Things were going well by Braxton's gauge, given the mares at the table were being cordial, save for the one called Minuette. Why she held such animosity, he didn't know, but he could piece it together given time. Her body language told him she didn't want to be here and she was more than likely going to be abrasive just to get under everyone's skin.

When Minuette opened her mouth, it merely gave Braxton all the proof his hunch was right while coming as a total shock to most members of the table. "What do you really want out of my sister, human?"

The abrupt and far less friendly tone of the question brought everypony at the table to a standstill. Braxton let the words break upon him like a wave as he kept a calm demeanor and placed his arm on the back of Lyra’s chair his fingers working softly in her mane. Lyra realized this had a two-fold effect. It was keeping her calm, and it was distracting her.

Braxton kept his face carefully blank, save for a small smile that turned up on one side of his mouth. "You're going to have to need to be a little more specific good mare," he said as he continued to run his fingers down the back of Lyra's neck to quell the anger he could see brewing. He gave a soft smile when he was rewarded by feeling her give a little tremble under his touch and her lean into it. Though her eyes still burned hot as she looked to her sister. As Braxton continued speaking. "What do I want from her now? An hour from now? Years from now? Those all have very different answers."

"Ambassador Zeddmore you don't need to answer her question. She has forgotten her manners," Viola said trying to play peacemaker, While casting a warning glance to her daughter. One which she ignored after downing her second zap-apple on the rocks.

"No, mom, he does need to answer!" she all but shouted, sitting tensely in her chair. Minuette looked ready to jump across the table, her shoulders shaking, teeth gritted and her ears flat against her head. Braxton could read that she was brave because they were in public, but the sense of fear rolling off the mare in waves was as clear as the anger. Braxton had to proceed with gentle caution till he could ascertain if it were just fear weeping from under his amulet or if it was something deeper.

Minuette continued, "Most of the top minds and tutors on the study of humans paint them as savage, bloodthirsty carnivores. Whom can't use magic or any type of tools. She keeps saying that he loves her, but how does she know? How do we even know that 'love' means the same thing to him? You can train a seal to hit different pitch horns to get a fish, and they will 'love' you for it. Ow! Vinyl!”

The ruckus at the table increased as Vinyl kicked her sister under the table, earning her a scolding from her mother as she tried to keep the situation into devolving into a one-sided shouting match. Braxton looked to Lyra, tuning out all of the noise. All the anger seemed to have drained away, replaced by sadness that he could read in her body language by the slump of her shoulders and the set of her ears. Refusing to look at her family—or even look at him when his hand rested upon her shoulder.

Right now his lead mare was miserable, and he wanted that to stop.

His eyes moved out of reflex as he saw Minuette get up forcefully from the table and begin to storm away.

"Hey, Minuette." Maybe it was the oddly calm, easy-going tone of his voice, amidst the melee of emotions. Or perhaps it was he knew her name without being introduced to her. Either case it made the mare stop dead in her tracks and look to the human male with a mix of fear and anger in her eyes, but once she did stop he merely motioned to the chair that she had left. "If you sit down, and listen, I will tell you."

Surprise seemed to crack through the waves of anger and fear, and the moment of hesitation looked to have the restaurant holding its collective breath. (mainly because it was as the arguing and shouting had drawn the eyes of quite a few patrons.) The mare reluctantly moved back to her seat and sat down, her expression no less hostile, but she wore a look of 'This I have to hear!' "Well. Spit it out, Ambassador."

"Minuette," Lyra began the irritation as evident as the sadness in her voice. Braxton gave her a warm smile and her shoulder a gentle squeeze and shook his head. Lyra leaned back in her seat crossing her arms as she gave him a look of 'I hope you know what you're doing.'

Braxton drew in a slow breath and then let it out in a windy sigh as he closed his eyes recalling everything he and Lyra had shared over their time together. "There are dozens of ways to explain this… at least a dozen more that would be the same basic platitudes and pretty words that anypony falling in love could say... she is a beautiful mare, she is stronger in spirit than she gives herself credit for. She isn't afraid to sacrifice herself for others so that they may be happy. When I see her eyes fill with wonder, it’s absolutely adorable. Adorable isn't an insult to a mare, is it? He questioned opening his eyes and finding that they were all staring at him. He had been muttering it all as if talking to himself. Which he had not been, but the desired result had been achieved: all eyes and ears were on him.

"You know what," Braxton continued as he crossed his arms in front of himself and leaned on the table. "Forget all the apparent chatter and pretty words, I will just tell you about my day."

“I didn't ask about how your day went," Minuette said, her ears cocking in irritation.

“I know, but please just hear me out," Braxton said holding up his hand in a placating gesture. "You know when Celestia raises the sun, and many ponies probably drag themselves out of bed wondering why the day has to start so early... I don't. I wake up wondering how many minutes it will be before I see Lyra. Every time my eyes meet hers, I can feel a certain weight that lifts just by being in her presence, and that she has a smile that I would like to think is just for me. And I find myself seeing if there are little ways to prolong the day rather than end it. Was there some story that I could tell her about my past adventures, was there some sight I had not seen here in Equestria she could tell me about? But the day does come to an end, and when we are apart, I am thinking about how long it will be before I come back to her. And when sleep finally takes me, I see that smile in the dark behind my eyes. Her voice the last I hear telling me goodnight, not realizing that I am doing it all for her in thanks for what she has done for me, in a short amount of time."

They were watching him intently now leaning forward in their seats, hanging on every word. But Braxton's eyes weren't on them—they had turned to look into the stunned golden eyes of the mare at his side. And he wasn't telling them; moreover, he was confessing to her more than anypony else.

"Mind you that was just a long-winded way of telling you what this very mare is fastly becoming to me."

That they saw how gentle he was when he brushed away the first tear with his thumb didn't matter to him in the least. He smiled to Lyra warmly when she released a shaky laugh and tilted her silky cheek into his hand, cupping it adoringly. It wasn't until she gave a gave a soft sniffle, and glanced in the direction of her siblings and mother, that Braxton's gaze settled on Minuette silently brooding but looking… uncertain and nervous.

"You asked me to tell you if the love I feel for Lyra is what YOU expect it to be… by all the benevolent gods I hope it is not. I hope it is unique, because I don't feel one straightforward emotion when I am with her. I feel pride, I feel a longing of just wanting to be closer to her. Hope that I can rekindle a sense of being that I haven't touched in a long time. And fear that I may screw it all up and lose her entirely. There is this crazy happiness that I can't describe, and I can't help think it shouldn't even be mine. I'll hold onto it with everything I have. And I will fight sword and magic to keep it."

"I love her," he said his voice gentle but held all the power of a thunderstorm. He turned his eyes to each one to make sure he drove this point home passing over each Vinyl was looking at him with eyes a few dozen degrees warmer than they had been at the start, Viola just watched them looking more than a little thunderstruck. Octavia looked like she was ready to melt or cry. Maybe cry and melt. Minuette looked more fearful, and even a little ashamed as Braxton held her gaze longest, and it made her feel like a target. "And I don't need it to mean anything to anypony, as long as it means everything to her."

The world fell away when Braxtons gaze came back to Lyra he gave her one soft smile more before she pulled him into her arms and kissed him passionately. He returned the kiss in equal measure to part from her leaving her breathless. It was only a few adoring awws and whoas from onlookers and family that brought the pair back to reality, making Lyra blush and Braxton smile.

"Lyra..." the voice came from Octavia, drawing Lyra's attention. "Does he have a brother? Because I want one."

Lyra's only response was to light her horn, and several napkins on the table wadded themselves up and then began to bean Octavia in the muzzle making her giggle.

"Oh, the napkins remind me, Octavia, here. This is for you," Braxton said as he shared in the laugh and pulled out a small piece of folded cloth, passing it to her.

Octavia unfolded it and looked at it, bewildered, before asking,"What is this, Braxton?" The unfolded cloth looked like a cello that had been burned into it from the threads themselves.

"Refold it, then place it on the table and unfold it," Braxton said. Octavia did as she was instructed. To the amazement of all at the table. The cloth, once it was unfolded, began to glow for a short moment only to become the object that was drawn on the fabric as the threads became beautiful polished wood and strings. It was Marchello.

Those that had been listening as well as watching gasped, seeing the magic the foreign ambassador use. Minuette slid back from the table with a start. Viola almost fell over as she went back in her chair. Vinyl whistled in amazement, and Octavia looked absolutely gobsmacked.

"Well, good mares I should be going. I thank you for sharing your table with me," Braxton said as he rose to reach into the pocket of his breeches and drew out the Crown Jewel Of The Desert. He whispered softly as he still held on to it, "volitant."

The crowd gave another gasp as they saw a handkerchief grow into the rug and hover in the air as the ambassador climbed onto it with ease.

Lyra looked down at her tea and then realized Braxton was about to leave and she then she figured to herself that her flanks needed to be better toned anyway as she looked to Braxton. She used the chair as a stepping stool. "Take me with you, Braxton,"

Braxton smiled as he helped pull her onto the carpet and she hugged him around his hips. The carpet rose a few more feet before turning and flying off with the pair in the direction of the castle.

Vinyl's whistle was the only sound that could be heard from the stunned and silent crowd of pony onlookers as she dropped a few bits onto the table for her hay burger, catching Octavia's attention—Vinyl didn't pay for anything unless she had to. "I said it once, and I will repeat it. No Stallion can touch him," she signed,drawing the attention of her family.

"Where are you going?" Octavia signed, looking to her herd sister.

"HecutmeoutofthecacoonfirstIcalldibsbye," Vinyl signed in a flurry before she ran toward the castle.

Octavia for her part picked up Marchello gently and also took off after Vinyl. There was no way she was going to let that street trotter try to cut in on Lyra’s Mustang without her permission.

Viola's thoughts raced, and her first order of business was to kick every spy in her stable out and have them find out about this ambassador that had stolen her daughter's heart. And find out what he had been doing today!

Minuette left the table so that her mother didn't see her fear. She wished Silvermane was here, but that worthless stallion had plain dropped off the face of Equestria. She needed to see Master Facade. He would know how to find her comfort stallion to at least take her mind off her troubles.