The Colthood of Steel Wing

*Author's note: When you get to a linked word, open it in a separate tab to see the image*

Chapter III: House & Home (Part 2 of 2)

The rest of the day was spent acquainting young Steel Wing with his new surroundings while his father and half-brother took care of the rest of the house, allowing Leaf Wisp to rest after coming home from the hospital. Although still apprehensive of accepting this strange, almost otherworldly environment at first, the frequent tours his mother and half-sister gave him of both floors of the two-story house soon ended his weak whimpering at every new detail revealed to him. For the most part, now he only gazed wide-eyed at everything. While he was seated on the elder's back, the two mares showed him the kitchen, the staircase, the front yard and backyard, the upstairs hallway, the two bathroom, his parents' bedroom, his siblings' soon-to-be-shared bedroom, and the room that will become his once the day was over.

Not so bad. Bigger than the other place, but not bad.

Meanwhile, Iron Wing and Neon Vice were rearranging the colt's room, allowing for Sweet's things from her old room to be moved here so that the newborn had his own room. Neon had found it futile to argue with his mother on the matter, being that she was too busy helping the newborn pegasus readjust to his living space. Consequently, he remained silent for the majority of the time he and his stepfather changed his bedroom.

Ever since the colt had been born a week previous, Neon found almost nothing likable about the small fur ball. In fact, he was unpleasantly reminded of the time Sweet Root had been born about eight years ago, when Neon himself was just eight. He remembered how much he'd hated having the attention split between him and this newborn filly, how he was practically forced to take care of himself most of the time, what with his mother taking care of the filly Sweet Root and his birth father constantly working. Neon was almost tempted to say he hated his sister.

But, his wound began to heal, as time tends to do, and he found himself getting used to this newborn filly he called his sister. For a time, they actually got along—well, as much as a brother and sister could get along, at any rate. However, with the onset of his mother's most recent pregnancy, the loathing Neon had buried away returned, and over the course of the eleven months his mother was with his half-brother, Neon was just as resentful of nearly everything around him as he had been when Sweet was born, if not more so. His cruelty towards her had returned, and quite simply put, he was just plain grumpy 24/7.

Iron, for his part, didn't know what to do with his stepson. It had been a week, but the unicorn colt showed no signs of accepting the newborn foal. He, himself, was happier than ever after Steel Wing was born, and he'd spent nearly every waking minute with the colt while he and Leaf were recovering at the hospital. Now, while his son was getting to know his home, Iron had to figure out a way to help Neon warm up to the newborn.

So far, he had no such luck.

Iron grunted, and shoved Neon's bed lengthwise to one side of his room, opening up a vacant space for another bed of equal size to be put in on the opposite side. Neon's room wasn't too big, but it was big enough for two foals to share a living space for a few years. Neon was busy placing some of his belongings into boxes that would be stored in the attic, some of which included comic books, regular reading books, and a training dummy that allowed him to practice non-house-destroying spells safely in his room. And he did it with a blank expression on his porcelain-white face, which replaced the scowl he'd worn earlier, having finally accepted the situation, but not the newborn. Yet.

Iron wiped a bit of sweat off his brow with the tip of a wing, and glanced at the unicorn. "Is that all you're gonna' put away?" he asked the younger colt.

Without turning to look at him, Neon replied, "Da (Yes)."

The dark-gray pegasus kept his gaze on Neon, then swiveled towards a rather large blue beanbag chair, sitting in the far corner of the bedroom. "Are you sure? There's nothing else that could be stored away to make some more room for your sister?" Iron pressed.

"Nyet (No)," the colt answered, an annoyed edge reaching his voice, and forcibly stuffing a piece of the training dummy into one of the four boxes sitting in the room.

The older pegasus sighed, rubbing a temple with a hoof. "Neon, the beanbag is going into the attic."

Neon's ears perked up immediately, but he still didn't turn his head. "No it's not."

"Yes, it is," Iron contradicted. "It's sitting on the side of the room that's going to be Sweet's, and there's no more room on your side to put it in. The chair is going upstairs."

The white unicorn growled, but didn't bother saying anything back, instead again forcibly stuffing another dummy piece into a cardboard box. Without another sound, he closed the box lid after stuffing in the last of the broken-up dummy pieces, and, levitating all four cardboard boxes up with dark-green magic, trotted out of the room without another word.

Iron watched where Neon had left the room, and then shook his head, running a hoof through his brown mane and releasing another breath.

"What are we going to do with that one?" he asked the air, not receiving any kind of response. Then, his ears perked up upon hearing a delightful voice.

"And this," Leaf Wisp's voice said, the mare coming into view through the bedroom's opened door, young Steel Wing fidgeting on her slender back, "is your brother's and sister's room."

Steel looked blankly inside the room, but spotted another pony in it, this one bigger than the rest. He'd recognized this pony, having seen him multiple times recently—everyday, actually, though his infant mind was not developed enough to distinguish time—and coming to the realization that he like this pony. Seeing this pony made him feel safe, just like when he was around the pony he was currently sitting on. Steel stretched out his forehooves as far as he could towards the larger pony, wanting him to come close and play with his big hoof—something, he learned, he rather enjoyed doing.

Iron smiled, his heart swelling with fatherly love, and went up to his son. His wife smiled warmly at him, and gestured with her head towards their son.

The older pegasus obediently lifted a hoof, allowing young Steel to grab onto it. He proceeded to try to wrestle with it, attempting to make the hoof move side to side. To his surprise, the big thing actually moved when he tried to make it move. This made the newborn giggle, the adorable sound ringing in the ears of his parents, causing them both to smile wider. The young colt didn't know it, but his father was actually just moving the hoof along with his son's actions.

Iron glanced momentarily at his wife. "Where's Sweet?"

"In the kitchen," Leaf answered, "she wanted to get a snack."

The stallion nodded, and turned his gaze back at Steel, who was still wrestling with the bigger-than-his-head hoof. "I wouldn't be surprised if his special talent would be hoof wrestling," Iron joked, leaning in and kissing the top of Steel's head.

Leaf chuckled, but it was fleeting, as her face grew weary at the edges. She looked at Iron with a humble gaze. "You have about a month left now, isn't that right?" she asked him.

Her husband's own face lost some of its liveliness, but held onto its happy demeanor. "Give or take a week, yeah. Then, I have to go back. But until then..." Iron stretched out his other hoof and picked up the foal, lifting him up into the air, imitating flight for the newborn, who squealed with natural delight. Steel's immature wings flapped a few times, the primal instincts for flight of a pegasus kicking in in his infantile mind once he was in the air. Iron couldn't help but marvel at them. The very moment he saw those two extra limbs for the first time, he'd known they were larger than the average pegasi's wingspan. Iron's wings flexed involuntarily; a self-conscious reaction to the eventual size this newborn pegasus' wings will grow to become in adulthood, he guessed. "I'll be right here for the both of you," Iron finished. After letting the colt hang in the air for a few more seconds, Iron brought him back down and held him close to his chest, rocking him. "How's he liking the house?"

Leaf let out a content sigh. "He's warming up to it, that much I can tell. What about Neon?"

The stallion's smile faltered. "Neon's... Well, Neon is still Neon." His statement was clarified by a rather loud thud coming from the floor above. The parents looked up, a thin layer of dust falling onto them from the ceiling, and Iron figured that the unicorn had just dropped his boxes off.

Iron sighed. "We should talk to him," he said, gaining the attention of the brown mare, "see what's bothering him so much, you know?"

The mother was silent for a moment, looking into her husband's deep red eyes. He raised a good point, but she knew from experience that attempting to coax her eldest son into talking about certain things was almost a fruitless effort. Leaf’s head entered a small battle of deciding whether or not to talk to Neon, all of which lasted for maybe three seconds until she said,

“I... I just don’t know, Iron.” Leaf hung her head somewhat shamefully, taking a seat on her haunches to relax. “But, I mean, it’s not like Neon doesn’t have a good reason to act the way he is. Sure, he’s almost all grown up, but I just... I don’t know what to say.” The mare’s ears drooped, and Iron, feeling sorry for his exhausted wife, went up to her and gave her a hug with his wings, though not too tight as Steel was in between them. Leaf smiled at the gesture, and wrapped her forelegs around her husband’s muscular neck, and rested her head on his shoulder, feeling his powerful, yet gentle body calm her in the amazing way it always seemed to do whenever he’s around; his feathers caressing her fur. Leaf loved it when he wrapped his wings around her body; it made her feel safe and warm. Iron once explained to her that wing hugs were much more intimate than the standard hug with forelegs. She had no trouble believing that.

Iron craned his head back and pecked her cheek tenderly. “It’ll be fine, lyubimaya (darling),” Iron cooed, “Neon will come around, and when he does, things will get better.”

"But you're leaving in a month!" Leaf retorted. "Will that be enough time for him to adjust? I don't know if I can handle taking care of Sweet and Steel if Neon won't lift so much as a hoof to even help..." The worn out mare was about to start rambling when her robust husband pulled back and held her by her shoulder, looking into her eyes. All of a sudden, like a rock being tossed into a pond, her worries were washed away at the sight of his beautiful ruby eyes. Leaf couldn’t quite place it, but Iron held a sort of hypnotic effect when he looked into her sapphire eyes with his red ones.

"I'll try talking to Neon again, and everything will be fine by the time I leave." He finished that with a tender kiss on Leaf's forehead. “Ya obeshchayu (I promise).”

Leaf could only smile back and hug him again, but this time bringing young Steel Wing into it, pushing him up into her muzzle to repeatedly kiss his little head, eliciting squeals from the newborn.

“Ya nadeyus' chto vy pravy, moya lyubov' (I hope you’re right, my love),” Leaf murmured, snuggling her head back into the crook of Iron’s neck and taking the newborn into her own foreleg. “I really do.”

*

* 3 *

*

Neon sneezed when the boxes he'd dropped kicked up an absurd amount of dust into the air. They really needed to clean this place up. He rubbed his nose with a forehoof, trying to hold back the allergenic tears beginning to form. He was in the middle of arranging the boxes filled with his personal belongings in the attic so everything would be orderly; just how he liked it.

"Chyort (Damn it)," the white unicorn muttered, sniffling back the signs of a runny nose. The sound of thudding hoofsteps reverberated throughout the attic's prismatic length, and Neon turned his head to see who was coming up. The head of Iron Wing popped up through the opening in the floor, made possible by the retractable staircase leading to the attic. At the sight of the older stallion, Neon had to suppress a groan. He was not in the mood to be around the old stallion, and so turned his attention back to his discarded boxes.

Iron took a quick, sweeping gaze of the dark, dusty old room around him. The majority of the floor space was taken up with cardboard boxes, some of which had labels. "Neon's Baby Clothes", "Family Photos", "Books", "Leaf's Old Toys (should really sell these, or at least donate them!)" Iron himself added that last part. Afterwards, he fully entered the room, becoming almost disguised in the limited lighting. Some dust drifted into his nostrils, and the stallion sneezed aggressively, almost falling back down the entry hole. After regaining his balance, he took several steps forward, a stern fixture on his face.

"Neon, we need to talk."

"I don't feel like talking," the colt answered.

Iron's brow furrowed. "I don't care about what you feel like doing," he said sternly. "You will listen to what I have to say."

Neon turn around, prepared to say something snarky to the old pegasus, but was surprised to see that old pegasus standing right in front of him, glaring down with those eerie red eyes of his that seem to glow out of the grayness. It was a glare Iron had perfected thanks to his profession. Neon shrank back, almost afraid. Iron voice growled out at him,

"You know I'm not staying for very long, that I'm leaving in a month's time, right?"

Neon nodded, keeping his gaze fixated at Iron's, fearing that if he were to look away, he'd regret it somehow.

"And you know that your mother is going to have a lot of work to do in order to take care of you, your sister, and your brother after I leave, right?"

Again, Neon nodded.

"Then I'm going to make one thing perfectly clear." Iron raised a hoof and prodded the unicorn's chest thoroughly. "However you feel about me, or my son, is irrelevant. But when I leave in a month, you have the responsibility as the stallion of the house to help your mother as much as you can with taking care of the foals. This teenage, angsty demeanor you're putting up all the time is not going to fly with me." Iron lowered his face closer to Neon's, which by now was adequately shocked at his stepfather's change in conduct. "Understand?"

The colt gulped, and replied, "Y-Yes sir."

Iron lifted his head back up, the air around the room returning from borderline dangerous to dusty and dark. "Don't think of it as doing this for me," Iron continued, now with a softer tone. "With three children to take care of, Leaf is going to need all the help she can get around the house. I wish I could be here—believe me, I so badly wish I could be here longer—but I was only allowed two months on leave to make sure your mother would be alright before and after the birth. Now, after I go—" Iron placed a hoof on his stepson's shoulder, "—can you promise, for your mother's sake, that you'll help her out as much as you can?"

After a moment, Neon looked down. Guilt crept into his chest. He'd known for a while that he was acting selfish and foalish, and Iron was right, it would be unacceptable to act like that as the stallion of the house. Surely, he would put aside his own petty feelings for his mother's sake. Yes, he would definitely do it. For his mother.

Neon looked back up at Iron and said, "Alright, I promise I'll help her out."

Iron smiled, and patted Neon's shoulder. "Thank you. I'm glad to hear—"

"For her," Neon cut in, "and only her."

"I understand," Iron said genuinely. "That's all I ask." He then turned back around and trotted down the staircase, abandoning Neon to his thoughts.

The first thing Neon did was let loose a pent-up sigh. "Of all the stallions my mom had to marry," he muttered under his breath as he swiveled back around to his boxes, "she had to marry one of Princess Celestia's guards..."