Autumn was coming. Honey Song peeked through her window shyly as a ray of soft sunlight invaded the room. She raised a hoof to pull the curtains again, but decided against it.
It was a nice, warm, happy day. Maybe she should take her daughter out for a nice walk?
Honey stole a quick glance at Peach Petal. She was sleeping in her comfy bed, all snuggled up and cozy in the simplicity of the blankets. Honey smiled at the memories. She had bought that blanket from the Apple Acres Annual Market for an affordable price. When she had gotten home, Peach practically bombarded Honey Song with praises and thanks. Then, she had curled up into a small ball with the blanket wrapped around her, and slept.
Honey decided to leave her daughter to sleep. Besides, she could go and make some breakfast earlier. She quietly trotted out of the room.
After only a few minutes of cooking, Honey Song had finished cooking breakfast. She smiled to herself and removed her apron. She removed her puffy gloves (Peach Petal loved calling it that) and glanced at the stairs.
No sounds of a trot or a simple hoofstep.
Honey sighed wearily and trotted back into Peach’s room. She was just about waking up from her slumber.
“Ugh...hurmph, Mom?” Peach mustered. Honey smiled at her daughter and smoothed her mane out. She sat on the side of the bed as Peach sat up.
“Mom, what’s that delicious smell?” Peach asked cheekily. Honey laughed and nudged Peach with her hoof.
“Come on, muffins are on the table for you.” She pulled Peach onto her back and trotted out of the room.
“What sort of muffins?” Peach asked as she sat on her mother’s back. Honey grinned mischievously and smirked. “You’ll see.” Peach groaned silently as the delicious scent of muffin wafted through her nose. Honey smiled again at Peach as they approached the dining room. She set the sleepy daughter on a chair and pushed a plate of muffins towards her muzzle.
“Here. This’ll wake you up.” Honey sat down on another chair with her own batch of muffins. Peach excitedly took a bite of the first one.
“Hey! Cookies and vanilla! Mm, yum!” Peach dug into the muffins enthusiastically, disregarding her sleepy state from her sleep. Honey nibbled her muffins slowly, trying to savor every little bite. Peach stole a glance at her mother as she gobbled on her cookie muffin.
“Mom, come on! You should eat more of that. What flavor is it anyways?” She poked a curious hoof at the green-colored muffin in front of her mom’s face. Honey smiled apologetically and explained to her eager daughter.
“Well, darling, I was just testing out some new recipes. I was trying to make a green tea flavored muffin but I sort of messed up. I’m not sure, but the flavor isn’t really coming out like I want it to.” Honey Song laughed a little at her own story. Her daughter slowly looked at her own plate, with 2 cookie muffins left.
“Here mom, you deserve them. I wasn’t hungry anyways.” She pushed her plate towards her mother hopefully. Honey smiled warmly and hugged her daughter.
“Thank you, peachy.” She took an intermediately-sized bite out of the cookie muffin, only to grin in delight. Peach smiled back happily and stood up.
“I’m done mom!” She grinned sheepishly at her mother, who gazed upon her with no expression on her face at all. Peach looked a little shocked.
“Of course, silly, why wouldn’t I know that?” Her mother instantly showed a humongous sign of love to her daughter once again as if she hadn’t had a sad nerve in her body at all. She gobbled the last of her muffin and lifted Peach Petal onto her shoulders.
“Mom, can we go to the park again? I wanna see that musician with the lyre!” Peach smiled eagerly at her decision. Honey smiled back with her usual warm and casual looks.
“Of course darling. That’s what I was thinking too.” Honey slowly trotted towards the door as Peach hopped off her back. The inseparable family put on their winter coats and headed out.
After a few minutes of brief and warm conversation, the 2 happy ponies encountered the lyrist, playing on the park bench.
The beautiful music reached Honey Song’s ears. Honey smiled warmly at the lyrist and greeted her.
“Hello, Lyra. Lovely day isn’t it?”
“Yes, sure.” The lyrist smiled hesitantly and continued to play the enchanting music. Honey Song awkwardly stood in front of the street performer. Her daughter grinned mischievously and trotted up towards Lyra.
“Good morning, ma’am!” Peach smiled widely. Lyra grinned at the little mare and nodded towards Honey Song.
“I suppose this is your daughter?” Honey nodded back and smiled again. She sat next to the street performer on the bench with her daughter on her lap. The lyrist smiled a little back, but focused on her music playing.
After a while of hesitant conversations and coin tosses into the metal cup, Honey Song decided to move on and wave goodbye to Lyra. Lyra looked up and smiled at the mother and daughter as they trotted away.
“Nice kid.” Lyra murmured under her breath as she played.
“Hey, mum?” Honey glanced down at her cute daughter expectantly. Peach smiled lightly back at her mom as if nothing was wrong. Honey laughed at her daughter and waited again for her to talk.
“Let’s go back home. I’m not feeling…er…good.” Peach looked down at the ground silently. Her mother didn’t notice her deep attitude and agreed cheerfully.
“Sure honey! Come on, I’ll buy you an ice cream first.” Honey whistled happily and trotted over to the nearby ice cream cart.
“Okay…” Peach slowly followed her mom towards the ice cream cart.
“Hello ma’am, what flavor?” Donut Joe asked. Honey patted Peach’s head with a light hoof and whispered in her ear.
“Peachy, why don’t you choose?” Peach threw her best smile at her mother and mumbled a short ‘Peach, please…’ to Donut Joe. As he scooped the delicious treat onto a cone, Honey Song decided to use the best of her curiosity and boredom.
“Well Joe, what brings you here?”
“Oh, just doin’ this part time for my new trademark company, Donut Doe! I will rule the world with my very company!” The donut pony laughed evilly as he handed Honey her ice cream cone. Honey nodded awkwardly and backed away. “Hey! MONEY!” Donut Joe screamed as she trotted backwards. Honey quickly tossed some bits onto the counter of the cart and disappeared with her daughter.
After a few minutes of Honey talking to her down daughter (without noticing anything unusual, meaning that she had no idea her daughter was sad), they had arrived back at home. Princess Twilight had already issued orders for more housing to be built in Ponyville, meaning that Honey Song could finally live somewhere.
As Honey unlocked their apartment door, her daughter asked something.
“Why did daddy leave us?”
Honey stopped turning the key. A wind of silence sprouted between their conversation. She looked at her daughter blankly.
“I’m sorry hon. Can’t talk right now. I need to do some of my homework, hehe.” Honey tried to lighten up the mood with some joke talk. Peach looked at Honey with honest eyes.
“Please mom, I’m a grown up. You can tell me…”
“I’m sorry darling. It’ll have to wait till tomorrow. Now, be a good girl and go back to your room.” Honey resumed her door-opening, trying to avoid direct eye contact with her daughter. Filled with guilt, she closed the door behind her as her daughter obediently but blankly went up the stairs to her bedroom.
Honey sat down on the couch in the living room silently.
Peach opened the door to her room quickly and closed it behind her just as quick. She slowly climbed onto the indoor window ledge beside her Wonderbolts bed and stared at the sky. The ocean and the beach were full of visitors. She could even see a water fight going on, but that wasn’t on her mind. What was on her mind was her father.
Her father.
It’d been a long time since she had seen her father, nonetheless. But what did he do? What did he do to go? Peach had wondered for a long time, but had never dared to say anything about it. But the reason she did say something about it was because of the park.
The good old park.
Her father would take her to the park every weekend and they would play hoofball at the field. After that, they would each grab a nice vanilla flavored cone and sit down on a bench to look at the sky. They would stare at the sky for a long time until the sun was setting, and then they would stare again.
Good times.
Peach thought of more memories about her father. Earning her cutiemark, ice cream cones, everything she could have asked for. She couldn’t make out what was happening to her family. They were all so…so happy.
Until that night.
“Afternoon, peachy.” Chrome Nova smiled at his daughter who was sitting down on the couch, peacefully reading. Peach looked up from her book and jumped into her father’s arms excitedly.
“Daddy! How was your day? Mine was great! So do you want to go to the park or the beach or play some hoofball or-“Peach jumped enthusiastically in his hooves, surprising him. Her father chuckled lightly and sighed.
“Shh, I know honey. I uh, just had a bad day at work. I can’t go to the park, sorry kiddo. We can go tomorrow.” He smiled weakly to prove his point. His daughter frowned at him suspiciously, but smiled the best she could.
“Sure daddy-o! I’ll finish my homework anyways. I do have a lot to do!” Peach grinned and hopped off towards her room. Chrome wearily set down his suitcase and untied his red tie. No day had been worse than this.
He had told his daughter a week ago that her mother was on a vacation to get some inspiration, but she was actually gone.
Long gone.
They had gotten into an endless fight on Monday and so, it led to Honey Song furiously stamping off to a taxi stop to catch a taxi stallion to the new pier for a luxury cruise she was supposedly ‘late’ for. Chrome had decided to kick off and relax without anything harming him. But today was supposed to be when her mother would come back, and he had no message that she was coming home.
Chrome sighed of the overwhelming memories and sat down on the bouncy couch. He needed to rest anyways.
“Chrome?” The door opened, revealing Honey Song at the doorstep with her luggage. Chrome turned around and smiled at his wife believingly. Honey smiled warmly and trotted towards him.
“Yes?” Chrome looked at Honey Song curiously.
“…Here are the papers.” Honey Song silently opened one of her bags and took out a light brown folder with sheets of papers inside. Chrome, who was now realizing what it was, returned the silence as he grabbed the folder anxiously. He took out a sheet of paper inside and gritted his teeth to silence a gasp.
Ponyville Divorce Arrangement Papers Briefing Statements
The new law of Princess Twilight officially states that divorces can now be in full force, prior to the argument of this anonymous law previously. Thank you sir and madam for consulting the Front Office of your town for one of these sheets. We are obliged to help you arrange this divorce and help you get through this law safely and legally.
We understand that your relationship may not have been as successful as others, so we plan to take full action. Please return this sheet under the following date:
The 21st of the 17th round of Celestia’s Sun (This sentence was scribbled down with a thick bold pen)
Please, sir and madam, sign these blanks and questions on the next page for more understanding of the new law that is in full force. You may round to the new sheets of paper in this folder after you are finished.
Thank you,
Ponyville Front Office,
Manager,
Trusty Hooves
Chrome looked up at his wife with considerate eyes. Honey Song guiltily took back the papers and looked back with an honest smile on her face as if it was the right thing to do. He then put on a blank face.
“Why?”
Peach buried her head in her hooves heavily now, almost drowning in her silent tears. She remembered what she would say every time her father had finished telling one of his sad stories.
“Did it have to go like that?”
“What if it was a fairytale instead?”