6 days to the Friendship Games

Getting out of her fencing suit for the day, Silver Rose rearranged her fringe, then walked over to pick up her things.

“Nice moves today, Silver Rose,” Quillion Riposte said from the other end. “You’re improving, I’ll tell you that. Just keep it up and you’ll be where we are in no time.”

“Um, sure. I’ll try my best!” She flashed a wide smile, then began walking back to the changing rooms to have a quick shower.

“Hey, Silver.” Sunny greeted once she entered the changing rooms. Sunny had gotten her clothes from her locker and was in the process of closing it. “Good work today with your fencing. I watched some of it.”

Suddenly, Lemon Zest burst out from the cubicle behind them, smiling from ear to ear. “Yeah, Silver! I saw you score a point on Royal Pin! That was so cool how you jumped off the side of the wall and stabbed him in the back!”

“Um…” Silver rubbed her right arm. “That was against the rules. Again. It didn’t count.” Then she realized she could see one of Lemon Zest’s breasts past the cubicle door and averted her eyes.

“Well, illegal or legal, that was pretty sick, dude!” She giggled, then hopped on the spot a few times. “Maybe you can teach me how to do cool stuff like that!”

“Just go back to your shower, Lemon Zest.” Sunny waved her fingers at her.

Complying, the pink-skinned girl disappeared behind the door again and Silver could hear her humming a tune from the band, Copperrear, or at least, Silver hoped she remembered it right. She didn’t seem to be a very conserved girl, at least to other girls, if she didn’t mind coming out naked.

“So you heading home today, Silver?” Sunny smiled and proceeded over to one of the empty cubicles and closed the door.

“Yeah, I’ll have to.” Silver got her stuff and got into the neighboring cubicle. “My mother is coming back today and she’s likely got a lot to talk about.”

“Oh, is she out filming something?”

“Yeah, she’s been gone a whole week.” Silver pulled off her PE shirt. “Off in Canterbury filming something called Roll of the Ricks.”

“Oh, I think I saw something about that on the news.” Sunny said as Silver removed the rest of her clothes. Silver could hear the shower turn on on the other side. “Some fantasy film?”

“I have no idea. Didn’t bother to look.” Silver turned on her shower and closed her eyes as the water fell down on her face. “And she ruined my-my, uh sister’s date the other day, because of a little misunderstanding. My sister was so upset she was crying all night, so I don’t quite want to think about my mother right now.”

“Wow. You’re all as normal as we are, hmm? You have family arguments too. Ebony Wings is always so nice on the news and stuff. Didn’t imagine she could make someone cry, much less her own daughter.”

“Yeah well… No one’s perfect…” Silver sighed and began washing herself off.

“I guess not.”

Silver was the first of the two girls to finish, changing back into her school uniform. Emerging from her cubicle, she found Lemon Zest’s was open, with the girl likely long gone by now, losing herself to her music.

“Hey, Sunny, I’m going to head home first.” Silver hoisted her backpack over her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure, see you,” the other girl said from inside her shower cubicle.

Heading out to the carpark, Silver found Silver Platter already there and waiting in the car for her.

“Silver Platter?” Silver buckled herself in. “Is Aunt Ivory not available today?”

“Welcome back, young princess.” The butler waved and then started the car. “Your aunt is waiting at home for your mother to arrive, so she has instructed me to pick you up.”

“Oh. So mother’s not back yet.”

The butler put the car into drive and shook his head. “When I departed, your mother was not home. Still, it’s a long way from Canterbury to Canterlot, so she might have arrived while I was out.”

Silver nodded nervously. She had been preparing for what to say for the last two nights. Most of it had been not so nice things she wanted to tell her mother, but she had scrapped that plan, figuring it would only likely get her mother more angry. Instead, she opted with the nicer approach, even if she hadn’t wanted to at first, to tell her mother that it was all just a misunderstanding and that she had been out earning love from Home Run with Aunt Ivory’s approval.

Thinking about Home Run and the kisses she had shared with him made her smile. Thinking about her mother and what she did still made her want to tear something apart, but she had to control herself. Anger was something she always had a problem with, but it seemed to be getting more out of hand recently. Normally, she would just silently brood over it, but this time, she had gone and yelled back at her mother. Perhaps she needed more training with the anger pheromone.

The car pulled into the Wings’ Estate driveway in no time, allowing Silver to wander down her home’s hallways in search of her aunt. She found her drinking a glass of pink lemonade in the first floor games room, playing billiards as she did so.

“Hello, sweetie,” Ivory said, taking aim at the cue ball with one hand and swirling the tumbler of golden lemonade in the other. “Back from fencing already?”

“Yeah. It always ends on time.” Silver put her things by the door and walked over. “Is mother not home yet?”

“It would seem not,” Ivory said languidly. “Normally I would offer you a glass of lemonade, but all that would do is make you sick.”

“Yes, you told me the other day.” Silver nodded, unable to forget the lemonade’s strange pink coloration. “So when are you going to use it? This lemonade. I mean, besides for yours and mother’s use.”

“Soon. I just need to finish a bit more planning, as well as making the invitations. Small things like that. If you’d like, I can brew some non-toxic lemonade for you later. I already have the recipe.”

“Oh, sure, Aunt Ivory.” Silver smiled and threw herself onto a rotary stool. “You should cook some time too! I can’t wait to try your famous cooking!”

“Yes, I should. It has been a while. I haven’t cooked since joining you here.” Ivory hit her cue ball into a red one, knocking it into a hole. “So, are you all set for when your mother returns?”

“I hope so.” Silver squirmed in her chair. Her mother never was a predictable one.

Ivory made a face before shooting the cue ball at the black eight ball, sending it ricocheting around the table and knocking into a cluster of multicolored balls.

“I’m just going to tell her the truth, plain and simple. She’ll force it out of me in the end anyway, and drawing it out would just make her angrier. And I think we’ll all agree that making your mother angry is the last thing we want.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.” Silver knew she would have to try harder to keep her anger in check. “I just wish she would admit she was wrong. She did the last time. I really liked that.”

“It takes a lot of effort for your mother to admit her mistakes, so I wouldn’t count on it.” Ivory shook her head. “It’s better to not put that in the equation.”

“Oh.”

Ivory Wings continued to play with the pool table, pocketing the balls one after another. When the last ball was gone from the table, Ivory straightened up and put the cue stick back on the rack and poured herself some more lemonade.

“It’s probably better if your mother just blows up at us,” the white haired changeling said with a sip. “If she doesn’t, she’ll harbor the resentment against us for months. And a sourpuss Chrysalis isn’t someone I want to live with.”

“Umm… oh…” Silver rubbed her arm. “You know best, Aunt Ivory. I’ll just go along with your plans.”

Ivory meandered over to the window and pulled the curtains aside.

“You’d better go get the sirens,” she said quietly.

“Huh? Why?”

“Because your mother is driving up the hill right now. This is going to be interesting.”

“Oh, um, okay, right away, Aunt Ivory!” Silver got off the chair and accidentally knocked it over with her leg. “Oops, I’ll um, get that later.” Then she bumped her back into the door and bounced off to the other end of the doorframe. “Right, I’ll get them down.”

When she was about a quarter down the hall, Silver doubled back and grabbed her backpack before going again, first heading to her room. She had first thought that she would simply go with how things went, but now that her mother was actually just outside the mansion, the young changeling felt a sense of panic come over her; she hoped her mother wouldn’t be too angry with her yelling at her the other night. And for breaking one of the phones.

After putting her things in her room, Silver went over and found the sirens in their room, each doing a different thing.

“Um, girls, mother’s home.” Silver pointed behind her. “She’ll want a word with us.”

“Ugh…” Aria threw the magazine she was reading over her shoulder. “We didn’t even do anything wrong.”

“Well, we may as well go,” Adagio said with a sigh. “We may as well be there when the queen gets back. Show her how much we missed her… or something.”

“Even though we didn’t really? Ow!” Sonata rubbed her head where Adagio had hit her. “Fine, fine! I’ll miss her.”

The sirens dutifully dropped whatever they were doing and followed Silver back downstairs. Peeping out the window, Silver Rose saw Ebony’s black and green sports car in the driveway, with Silver Platter hurrying to the driver’s seat to park it elsewhere.

“We better hurry. She might already be in the house.” Silver beckoned for the others down the stairs.

As they neared the game room, they passed a maid who was fearfully scurrying along in the opposite direction.

That can’t be good…

“Where are they?” Silver heard her mother’s voice from inside the room. “The house isn’t that big! It doesn’t take someone this long to get here!”

“The house is big, sister dear.” she heard Aunt Ivory’s voice. “It takes some time. Just be patient.”

“I will most absolutely not be patient! I was away for only a week and all of you lose it! I couldn’t even count on you!”

“Now, now, let’s not be so quick to judge, Chryssie.”

“Don’t you ‘Chryssie’ me, sister! Where are the rest of them? Aren’t they supposed to be here to greet the queen welcome!?”

Hearing her mother’s raised voice, Silver hesitated outside the doorway, unsure if she still wanted to go in.

“I’m sure they’re on the way, sister. Why don’t you settle down and have yourself a glass of lemonade.”

“Buck the lemonade,” Silver heard her mother spit. “I will not be kept waiting in my own house!”

“Come on, let’s go. She’s unstable as she is…” Adagio shoved Silver into the room.

The young changeling stumbled a step, getting her mother’s and aunt’s attention. “Umm, welcome back, mother.” Then the sirens walked in behind her, standing by a bookshelf.

Ebony Wings said nothing, but squinted at her daughter and the sirens as if she wasn’t sure they were really there. Then she stomped over to Silver Rose, leaning over her so close that Silver could smell the mint on her breath.

“And where,” Ebony breathed. “Have you been?”

“Up-upstairs, mother,” Silver answered sheepishly. “I went to call the sirens down.”

“Welcome back, Ebony.” Adagio Dazzle waved. Her two sisters followed suit.

Ebony Wings reared back, her mouth working furiously as she decided on what to say.

“Well?” she barked eventually. “What do you have to say for yourselves?!”

“We didn’t go anywhere, Ebony.” Sonata was the first to say something. “We didn’t encourage Silver to sneak out or anything.”

“Yeah. We were home all of Saturday…” Aria folded her arms and leaned back against the shelf.

“And your daughter was on a date. She didn’t sneak out.” Adagio reinforced the explanation.

“You honestly expect me to believe that?” Ebony snapped, turning away with her nose in the air. “If you didn’t sneak out, then why wasn’t Ivory Wings following you? Explain that.”

“I… I…” Silver sputtered. “I wanted to have a real date. One without eyes on me all the time, one where I could enjoy time with Home Run like a normal girl would. For once, I didn’t want to look at him as prey, but as a friend. Just this once, mother. So I requested Aunt Ivory not to-”

“You realize how bad of a plan that was?” Ebony snapped at her sister. “What if someone found out what she was? What if she was kidnapped? What would you do then? Why didn’t you stop her?!”

Ebony picked up one of the billiard balls and tossed it into the wall beside Ivory’s head. To her aunt’s credit, Ivory didn’t even flinch, nor did she try to get out of the way as the ball burrowed halfway into the wall, sending cracks snaking up to the ceiling.

Silver swallowed hard as she watched her mother. She felt so much anger radiating off of her that she wanted to get angry herself, but she knew this time, she had to really fight it. She didn’t want to make this worse than it already is.

“It was a mistake on my part, yes. I regret letting her go alone.” Ivory sighed, and flicked off specks of plaster off her shoulder. “But I want her to be happy, unlike a certain someone. She doesn’t have as long as we do to do as she wants. She needs that freedom, Ebony. So she can do as she wants because she won’t be around forever. You know that.”

“Safety is more important than enjoyment, Ivory!” Ebony picked up another billiard ball. “What happens if someone found out she was a changeling?! What then? They’d be outside our gates right now with pitchforks and torches in their hands! I will not permit that to happen again!”

“And you think I’d want to see that too?” It was Ivory’s turn to raise her voice. “You of all people know me better than anyone else! You think I’d like to see our kind hunted again? You think I want to lose more family? I did what I did for your daughter because I trusted her! Do you trust her?!”

“Not enough.” Ebony folded her arms. “She’s still very new to all this. She can’t even maintain a proper hold over her personas and their thoughts, so what makes you think she won’t give away our identities by accident?”

Hearing that sent a spike through Silver Rose’s heart, but she had expected something like that to come from her mother’s mouth. It hurt, but she didn’t put it past her mother.

“And you three?” Ebony turned back to the sirens and pointed a finger at them. “Did you think that was a good idea? To let my daughter roam about on her own with that boy? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“We didn’t know about it, Ebony.” Sonata scratched her head. “We only found out after Ivory explained it all to us after you called the house.”

“Yeah… Not like we had much say…” Aria drawled, as bored as ever, even with Ebony threatening to throw billiard balls in the room.

“And you!” Ebony threw the billiard ball towards Silver. The girl flinched and ducked to the side, relieved to hear the ball crashing into the wall behind her. “What came over you to want a regular date? You know you are not regular! You know you can never live like the humans do! What is the matter with you?!”

“But mother-”

“Don’t you ‘but mother’ me! What part of that entire venture seemed like a good idea?! Leaving your aunt behind so she couldn’t protect you, or not even notifying me of your plans? I am the queen, and I absolutely must know of what you’re doing. If we didn’t have these protocols in place, do you know what we would have?!”

Sonata timidly raised her hand. “Um, fun?”

Aria hit her on the back of her head.

“No, we’d have chaos!” Ebony roared, spit and drops of venom flying from her mouth. “Does no one in this house know how to think properly?!”

“I protected my-myself, mother.” Silver decided to speak up after a moment’s hesitation. “You’ve had me trained to be able to do that. I’m capable of p-protecting myself. I did just that when I had to deal with the mugger.”

Ebony Wings, who had one hand on a bookshelf to support herself, grew very still, except for her hand which clenched, splintering the wood of the bookshelf with a crack.

“What. Did. You. Just. Say?” the actress hissed, her eyes glowing faintly green.

“Th-that I can handle myself?” Silver rubbed the back of one hand.

“Not that! The last bit! And you better pray that I misheard you.”

“A-A-About the m-mugger?” Silver’s hands trembled and she tilted her head down and to the side. “I-I dealt with h-him… He didn’t hurt m-me, mother…”

“You ran into a mugger. And I assume this was on the same night as your ‘date’?” Ebony said through clenched teeth. “And you weren’t there to protect her!?” She swirled around and pointed an accusatory finger at Ivory Wings. “What kind of Queen’s Reaper are you?! And you!” Ebony turned back at Silver Rose. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t insisted on having your aunt leave! Am I the only sane one in this household?!” Ebony punctuated this statement by punching the bookshelf, causing it to sway and drop books on the floor.

Silver flinched every time her mother swung a fist, hoping she wouldn’t grab another billiard ball.

“I mean, what were you thinking!” Green flames began to swirl into existence under Ebony Wings’ chin, licking upwards. “Oh, wait, I know. You weren’t thinking!”

“I-I just wanted to k-know what it would be like t-to have an actual d-date…” Silver tried to look as innocent as she could. “And I c-could handle my-myself, mother… I didn’t have any-any trouble dealing with the mugger.”

“Trouble or no, you did something you shouldn’t have done!” Ebony picked up another ball, much to Silver’s annoyance and fear. “I set the rules and I expect you to follow them! Even when I’m not around! Yeah, don’t think just because I’m not here you can do as you please! I leave for one week and you five almost destroy everything I built over the years!”

“Please, sister, one little mugger isn’t going to-”

With a burst of fire, Ebony Wings disappeared behind a fiery veil of flowing green flames, burning the entire shelf she was standing next to, along with all the books in it, part of the billiard table and the carpet under her feet. After the flames had died down, Chrysalis stepped forward, clad in only her flameproof underwear now, stabbing a claw in Ivory’s chest, hard enough to draw blood. Silver could see red spreading across her aunt’s white shirt, but at least it didn’t look severe.

“Don’t you talk to me like I don’t know what I’m saying!” Chrysalis gazed menacingly into her sister’s eyes. “Aren’t you the tactician of the family?! Shouldn’t you know how serious this is? Anything could’ve happened out there! If not the mugger, then the boy! What if my daughter were to give away something?! Like her teeth, for example. You not being there is a mistake. On. Your. Part. Ivory.” With each word, Chrysalis dug her claw deeper into her sister’s chest, spurting out more blood. Silver thought her mother was trying to kill her aunt, but the white haired changeling didn’t seem to be in too much pain.

“Yes, I admit that I should have been there to watch over your daughter, Chrysalis,” Ivory said, reaching up and removing her sister’s talon from her chest. “But she asked to be left alone on her date. And it’s not reasonable to think that I’ll be around all the time to guard her, right?”

Chrysalis leaned over her sister, drew in a deep breath, and screeched. Everyone in the room but Ivory Wings covered their ears, the scream piercing their eardrums. The window cracked and the empty glass of lemonade exploded, sending shards of glass flying.

Silver bent over to avoid the debris, grinding her teeth together, hoping to take the high pitched scream away. Now for sure, she knew her mother was crazy, or at least, very, very upset.

Eventually, Ivory reached a hand up and shut her sister’s mouth, jamming it shut from the jaw.

“No need to scream about it, Chryssie!” Ivory pushed her sister’s head away, then dug a finger in one ear. “You’re not five years old anymore. Act your age.”

Chrysalis glared daggers at Ivory, the picked up one of the pool cues and snapped it over her knee.

“Oh, that’s rich. You’re telling me how to behave, when you clearly left the princess unguarded? Don’t tell me what to do!” She ended the statement by throwing the broken cue at her sister like a javelin, where it barely grazed her shoulder before embedding itself in the door. The impact flung the door open, and Chrysalis stomped over to it. She looked over her shoulder venomously.

“You all have a lot to think about.”

And then she was gone, slamming the door behind her.

The shelf by the side was still burning, and so was the billiard table and carpet, but at least the flames were dying down.

Ivory swiped a hand over her face, then unbuttoned the first three buttons of her now stained shirt to have a better look at the wounds.

“Um… Aunt Ivory, are you alright?” Silver eventually decided it was safe to go to her aunt.

“I’ll be fine. Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Ivory Wings remarked.

“I’m sorry she hurt you because of me.” Silver looked down at her feet, feeling ashamed. “This is all my fault. You and the sirens didn’t deserve all this.”

“Tell me about it…” Aria still had both hands over her ears and a irritated look on her face.

Adagio took her fingers out of her own ears. “Not a bad vocal range though; she’d make a great siren.”

Ivory took a deep breath, then began healing her chest wounds, leaving little black spots where Chrysalis had stabbed her.

“What’s done is done, sweetie.” Ivory grabbed her shoulder and rubbed it. “I’m just glad now that your mother’s let it all out.”

“Has she though?” Sonata piped up. “We know that she can stay angry for years, if she doesn’t get her way.”

“She better be…” Ivory stomped a foot down on the burning spots on the carpet. “Well, if not… I may have ways to get her to calm down. You won’t like them, Silver, so I’ll spare you the details.”

“Gee, she sure wrecked the room.” Adagio pulled a piece of glass from her hair. “Good thing we rarely come here.”

“I’ll call someone to come up here and fix it,” Ivory sighed. “She’ll probably make me pay for it too, the witch. Good thing the Templars left me a lot of money.”

“Is there… anything I can do now?” Silver kicked at a small fire, extinguishing it. “Since it’s my fault, I’d like to make it up.”

“Unless you rather take my place to appease your mother, then nothing comes to mind. Some, ah, questionable stuff will have to happen.”

“Oh.” Silver looked at the broken door. “I guess I’ll have to leave that part up to you, Aunt Ivory.”

“That’s a good girl,” Ivory said, patting Silver on the head like a puppy. “Now all of you should go and wash up for dinner. I have a feeling your mother won’t be joining us.”