Lost Years

“Darling, you don’t have to leave,” Maira’s mother said, a bit desperately, her bewildered green eyes imploring Maira to stay.

Maira shook her head, blowing a strand of purple hair out of her face. “You’ve made it very clear I can’t live here with a pegasus. And I will not give him up,” she said firmly, staring her mother down. “I won’t be too far, and there’s already an old cottage out where we’re planning to live. Just needs a bit of fixing up.”

Her mother let out a small sob.

“Don’t worry, I’ll visit sometimes, even though I won’t be able to bring my husband with me,” Maira said, taking out her frustration on her mostly packed saddlebags.

“Darling, I just want you to be-”

“Safe? Happy?” Maira bites out. “I won’t be happy without Ice, and it isn’t safe here for him.” She threw her saddlebags on her back, adjusting them to avoid glaring. “We will not live in a place that will shame us for loving each other.”

Maira’s mother opened and closed her mouth a few times, searching for words and arguments that didn’t come. Maira let herself soften a little, and drew her mother into a hug. “I’m happy with him, Mom. He makes me so, so happy. I wish that could be enough for you.” She strengthened her walls again as she pulled away, unable to look her mother in the eye. “I’ll visit,” she said softly, and walked out the door.

—

Ice Winds picked at what was left of his food, avoiding his parents’ burning stares. The soft clinking of his spoon was the only noise in the room as he ate the last of his soup. Without an excuse to look down, he slowly made himself meet his parents’ eyes. The disappointment he saw made him flinch, his feathers twitching, but he didn’t move his gaze. “Would you say something, please?” he asked, hating how his voice came out nearly a whisper.

His parents exchanged glances. “You’re making a mistake,” his mother said, blunt as always. He’d always loved that about her, but he’d never imagined it would hurt so much.

“I don’t think I am,” he said, keeping his voice calm. “I believe my decision is what’s right for me and my future. And you’ve both always taught me to trust myself.”

“Well, yes, son, but I just don’t see how running off to the woods alone with some earth pony could help with your future,” his father tried.

“Her name is Maira,” Ice said sharply. He took a deep breath. “If we are going to have this conversation, we are going to have it frankly. Maira and I love each other. We are going to live together. It is no longer simpler to pretend she doesn’t exist, and I won’t allow you to.”

Ice’s mother’s expression hardened into something he could have gone his entire life without seeing. “Now, listen to me, son,” she said, her voice low and angry. “I don’t know what this mare has been teaching you, what you think you’ve learned, but your place is here, with your family, not with her.”

Ice reeled back. He almost didn’t recognize his mother like this. How could this pony - someone who’d been so caring and loving, who’d taught him math when he didn’t understand his teacher, and who’d read awful sappy romance books with him just so they could share something together - how could she be so terrible? He couldn’t wrap his mind around it, and he didn’t want to.

He looked at his mother’s awful, angry face, and at his father’s lowered eyes, and he pushed back his chair. “I hadn’t realized,” he said, fighting back the urge to cry. “That the ponies that raised me were capable of so much hatred. I know when- when I first met Maira, that as much as I tried not to, I believed things that were wrong and prejudiced and harmful. And I know Maira did too. And we’re ashamed of that, and we’re trying to be better, together. And I guess I just thought that you’d be able to believe your own son when I told you that we were wrong, and you’d try to be better too.”

Ice couldn’t make himself look at his parents as he sniffed and blinked rapidly, trying to stop his tears. “But I suppose that was too much to hope for,” he whispered, and all but ran out the door, scooping up his saddlebags on the way and throwing them on his back haphazardly. He slowed down once he got to the woods, let out the last of his tears, and steadily made his way towards his new home.